US EditionRubio orders diplomats to return to using Times New Roman, ousting Calibri
Rubio reversed the 2023 Calibri switch, citing $145,000 wasted and lack of accessibility improvements to restore professionalism in U.S. diplomatic communications.
- Mr. Rubio ordered a department-wide switch back to Times New Roman, effective Wednesday, to 'restore decorum and professionalism' in official documents, replacing the 2023 Calibri adoption.
- The 2023 switch to Calibri was adopted because its rounded letters and wide spacing improved accessibility for people with disabilities, but Rubio framed it as a misguided DEI policy by Antony Blinken, former Secretary of State.
- The cable asserted the switch to Calibri `did not achieve that goal` and said it cost the department $145,000, though no evidence was provided.
- The directive immediately changes templates used at embassies and consulates, as Rubio ordered U.S. diplomats and State Department staff to stop using Calibri, dismantling DEI programmes abolished since January.
- The font order fits a wider White House push, noting that President Donald Trump has prioritized scrubbing DEI programs and the Trump administration frames this as returning to merit-based standards, while readability studies finding sans serif easier to read fuel ongoing accessibility debates.
153 Articles
153 Articles
Woke bashing of the week: Font wars – Times New Roman strikes back
Concluding ‘woke-bashing of the week 2025’ with an especially bizarre tale, we head, inevitably, to the United States, and specifically to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has dragged typefaces into the right’s war on woke. Rubio has ordered a halt to the State Department’s official use of Calibri, reversing a 2023 Biden-era directive that he dismisses as a “wasteful” sop to diversity. The new instruction, sent to all diplomats and effective …
Commentary: What’s in a font? Marco Rubio’s malicious change to Times New Roman
My wife and I are once again rewatching “Mad Men,” a show that has, for better or worse, lodged itself deep within my personality. I can’t remember the password to my bank account, or which of my kid’s “Spirit Days” is next Tuesday, but I can endlessly quote “Mad Men.” We just finished season one, which ends with “The Wheel.” You remember it; the episode where Don Draper pitches Kodak on a ...
Commentary: What's in a font? Marco Rubio's malicious change to Times New Roman
My wife and I are once again rewatching “Mad Men,” a show that has, for better or worse, lodged itself deep within my personality. I can’t remember the password to my bank account, or which of my kid’s “Spirit Days” is next Tuesday, ...
Contributor: What's in a font? Marco Rubio's malicious change to Times New Roman
Insisting that use of the more accessible Calibri was just "another wasteful DEIA program," the secretary of State recently made a bold decision to change the government's fonts.
The State Department reinstates an old font, in a typeface about-face
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, pictured at a ceremony at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington last week, has directed diplomats to bring back Times New Roman as their official font.(Allison Robbert / AFP via Getty Images)The State Department has reversed a Biden-era font change that aimed to make its paperwork more accessible to readers with disabilities. Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed diplomats around the world to switch from Cal…
Tiniest Trump Scandal of All Time? New State Department FONT Policy!
This could qualify as the tiniest Trump scandal of all time -- even smaller than they "Trump dumped all the fish food in the koi pond" scandal. It's a FONT scandal. NBC News thought this was hot-buns news from the Department of State: This is a real headline from NBC News. pic.twitter.com/s7m4JNXO6z — Media Research Center (@theMRC) December 11, 2025 That's right: we're supposed be outraged by this: "Calibri font is the latest casualty in the Tr…
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