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He also pointed directly at the ideological roots of the decision, writing that the move away from Times New Roman sprang from “radical” diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs and amounted to the “misguided and ineffective switch from the serif typeface Times New Roman to sans serif Calibri.”³
According to the order, Calibri’s casual look does not complement the department’s official letterhead, nor does it communicate the seriousness associated with diplomacy.
Blinken’s DEI Office Pushed the Original Switch
Rubio’s memo exposes what many career officials suspected during the Biden years. Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the font switch after recommendations from the in house diversity office, a division Rubio has since disbanded under Trump’s directive to eliminate DEI roles agency wide.
Blinken insisted at the time that Calibri made things easier for individuals with low vision or dyslexia, arguing that the simpler shapes improved readability. But Rubio has dismissed this as unsupported DEI theory and noted that accessibility cases did not decline after the change.
The Price Tag: One Hundred Forty Five Thousand Dollars for a Font
The memo also revealed the cost of the Biden era typeface experiment. Taxpayers shelled out a staggering $145,000 for the department wide shift. Rubio did not mince words about the outcome. He stated plainly that “switching to Calibri achieved nothing except the degradation of the department’s official correspondence.”⁴
He said the initiative was not the most extreme DEI project the department pursued, but “although switching to Calibri was not among the department’s most illegal, immoral, radical or wasteful instances of DEI it was nonetheless cosmetic.”⁵
None of the promised accessibility gains materialized. The only notable effect was millions of taxpayer dollars vaporized for what amounted to an aesthetic experiment.
Rubio Restores Tradition and Formality
Under the new rule, diplomats must return to Times New Roman in 14 point font immediately. Only treaty documents and presidential appointment papers may use Courier New at 12 point.
Rubio justified his decision by pointing out that serif typefaces date back to Roman antiquity and are used by the White House, Supreme Court and major institutions that represent permanence and gravitas. He reminded staff that the same style is featured on Air Force One and in federal courts, serving as a visual signal of authority.
DEI Influenced Everything Under Biden, Even Fonts
The memo has touched a nerve because it exposes how deeply DEI ideology infiltrated even the most mundane parts of government. During Blinken’s tenure, the State Department sought seventy six million dollars for DEI programs. He openly declared that diversity metrics would be the “chief measurement” of his success.⁸
His hand picked diversity chief Zakiya Carr Johnson had a long record of pushing radical academic theories and once co founded an activist organization called Black Women Disrupt. She spoke openly about being “critical of traditional systems, critical of how we’ve always done things.”⁷
What began as personnel initiatives eventually seeped into branding, templates and graphic standards, all at taxpayer expense.
Rubio’s reversal is more than a font order. It is a symbol that the Trump administration intends to uproot every unnecessary DEI driven change, no matter how small, to restore traditional standards and eliminate the culture war bureaucracy built under Biden.
Liberals may mock the fight over typefaces, but the outrage says everything. They spent one hundred forty five thousand tax dollars switching to Calibri in the name of inclusion and still cannot prove it helped anyone.
Now the Trump team is finally forcing the country to see just how far the madness went.
