Rubio orders State Department to ditch Calibri for Times New Roman

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has formally ordered the US State Division to return to utilizing the Occasions New Roman font as an alternative of Calibri. The New York Times reports this Tuesday.

The newspaper cited official paperwork by which Rubio ordered State Division posts around the globe to halt using the Calibri font that earlier Secretary of State Antony Blinken made customary as a part of a Variety, Fairness, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) initiative.

Rubio, who has tried to eradicate DEIA components throughout the division, wrote in the memo“To revive decorum and professionalism to the Division’s written work merchandise and eradicate yet one more wasteful DEIA program, the Division is returning to Occasions New Roman because the default font.”

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered the State Division to modify from the Calibri font again to Occasions New Roman. (Getty Photographs)

Blinken ordered the change in 2023, changing Occasions New Roman, which had been the division’s official font for 20 years. Earlier than that, Courier New was the font till 2004.

As The Occasions reported, “The change was supposed to enhance accessibility for readers with disabilities, corresponding to low imaginative and prescient and dyslexia, and for individuals who use assistive applied sciences, corresponding to display screen readers.”

The Biden administration’s transfer was really helpful by the division’s Workplace of Variety and Inclusion, an company that Rubio abolished this yr as a part of the Trump administration’s push to dismantle DEI packages throughout the federal authorities.

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Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken had his division undertake using the Calibri font for official papers in 2023 as a part of an accessibility initiative. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photograph)

Rubio’s memo, with the topic line “Return to Custom: Occasions New Roman 14-Level Font Required for All Division Paper,” acknowledged that “the change to Calibri achieved nothing apart from the deterioration of the division’s official correspondence.”

He added that it was a “wasteful” range transfer that failed to attain the purpose of higher accessibility.

The Occasions reported, “However Mr. Rubio known as it a failure by his personal requirements and stated that ‘accessibility-based doc restoration circumstances’ had not decreased within the division.”

The memo additionally states that Occasions New Roman and different serif fonts are “extensively considered as a reference to custom, formality and ceremony.” It famous that different ministries use serif fonts of their communications and argued that Calibri is “casual” and “inconsistent” with State Division letterhead.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s order to reinstate Occasions New Roman within the division is according to Trump’s efforts to eradicate DEI and accessibility initiatives throughout the federal authorities. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photograph)

When requested for remark, a State Division spokesperson advised Fox Information Digital: “This formatting customary is in step with the President’s One Voice for America’s International Relations directive and underscores the Division’s duty to take care of a uniform, skilled voice in all communications.”

The spokesperson stated the change will come into impact on Wednesday, December 10.

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They added: “Whether or not inner memoranda, paperwork ready for administrators, or paperwork shared externally, constant formatting strengthens credibility and helps a unified division id.”