CNN Crew Ridicules Trump Administration’s Weird ‘Woke Font Controversy’

CNN’s morning crew mocked what they called the Trump administration’s “woke font controversy” — reversing a Biden-era accessibility initiative at the State Department by going back to Times New Roman.

Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the change to 15-point Calibri in 2023 based on a recommendation from the chief diversity officer in order to make things easier on people with disabilities. Secretary of State Marco Rubio undid that change this week in a memo railing against “DEIA” initiatives.

On Friday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, anchor Audie Cornish and her “Group Chat” panel — Noel King, co-host and editorial director of the “Today, Explained” podcast; Rob Bluey, president and executive editor of “The Daily Signal”; and Jerusalem Demsas, founder and editor of “The Argument”  — ridiculed the issue and weighed in on their own strongly-held font beliefs:

CORNISH: What’s in your group chat?

DEMSAS: I’m obsessed with the woke font controversy.

CORNISH: In the State Department are generally?

DEMSAS: I — yes. No, the —

CORNISH: OK.

DEMSAS: So, Marco Rubio has changed the font from Calibri to Times New Roman.

CORNISH: On official communication.

DEMSAS: On official communications because apparently it was changed by the Biden administration for — because there was accessibility reasons with some fonts. Some fonts that are rounder, for instance, people are familiar with Comic Sans can be easier to read. And it was changed for those reasons. I had no idea that was what’s happening. But as my font nerd group chat is very, very obsessed with this.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

CORNISH: You also have a font nerd group chat?

DEMSAS: Yes. Yes.

CORNISH: Oh, my God. So into this.

(CROSS TALK)

CORNISH: No, I had a vigorous argument about sans serif and serif fonts this week.

DEMSAS: To be clear, I prefer serif fonts. But I’m just sort of like, it’s kind of weird to me —

CORNISH: What?

DEMSAS: Yes.

CORNISH: You’re off the panel. Time for — time for Rob Bluey.

BLUEY: I’ve got to be invited to this — this font chat.

CORNISH: Oh, are you a serif person?

BLUEY: I don’t know. I’m not going to take sides.

Watch above via CNN This Morning.