TRUMP'S NEWSPEAK

TRUMP IS CONSTRAINING AMERICANS' ABILITY TO ANALYSE, LEARN, IMPROVE, AND ENGAGE IN THE KIND OF OPEN AND INFORMED DISCOURSE THAT A WELL-FUNCTIONING DEMOCRACY REQUIRES

- Ana Palacio

Some 2,500 years ago, Confucius was reportedly asked what he would do first if granted absolute power. "I would rectify the names of things," he replied. Changing the language used, he suggested, would enable him to guide "affairs" and ensure that "punishments and rewards" were "appropriate." Confucius understood that language is not merely descriptive, but prescriptive: by shaping thought and discourse, it determines actions and outcomes.

Now, US President Donald Trump is attempting to leverage language to his own ends. Since his return to the White House, he has issued a wave of executive orders aimed at "rectifying" the language of governance in America. This includes barring the federal government from using terms like "diversity," "equity," "inclusion," "climate crisis," "gender identity," and other terms related to sexual and racial identity, which he argues perpetuate a damaging "woke" ideology.

With these Orwellian orders, Trump is directing outcomes by reshaping narratives, shifting priorities, erasing inconvenient truths. Banning the term "sustainability" banishes environmental concerns. Prohibiting all mention of "diversity" obscures systemic inequities.

While some of Trump's decrees align with public opinion for example, a 2023 survey showed that a majority of Americans reject the idea that there are more than two genders the overall impact is to undermine, politicize, and discredit existing concepts and valuable lines of intellectual and scientific inquiry. In other words, Trump is constraining Americans' ability to analyse, learn, improve, and engage in the kind of open and informed discourse that a well-functioning democracy requires.