White House says it has no list of banned words, leaves linguistic choices up to agencies

The White House has clarified that there is no official list of banned words that are restricted from use in government documents. Instead, individual agencies are responsible for word choice in compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive orders. This revelation comes in response to recent reports in the media suggesting that the Trump administration has banned hundreds of words from official documents, including terms like “diverse,” “LGBTQ,” and “unconscious bias.”

Since taking office, President Trump has signed 92 executive orders, some of which have targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in both the public and private sectors. Additionally, there have been executive orders addressing transgender issues, such as prohibiting biological men from competing in women’s sports and banning transgender surgical procedures for children.

It was reported by The New York Times that around 250 words were removed from the Trump administration’s lexicon or used with discretion. Some of the words that were highlighted as potentially conflicting with Trump’s executive orders on transgender issues and diversity, equity, and inclusion included terms like “they/them,” “breastfeed + people,” “antiracist,” “people + uterus,” and “confirmation bias.”

In February, the White House responded to claims that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had instructed scientists to avoid using words like “woman,” “disabled,” and “elderly” in external documents. A White House official stated that the majority of the words listed as banned did not actually need to be removed from communications and documents, suggesting that the agency may have misinterpreted Trump’s executive orders on gender ideology.

Specific words like “gender,” “inclusion,” “identity,” “diversity,” “intersex,” “equity,” “equitable,” “transgender,” and “trans” were identified as not needing to be prohibited in order to comply with Trump’s executive orders.

It is common for presidential administrations to adjust the language used in official documents to align with their policies and vision for the future. The Biden administration, for example, used the term “birthing people” instead of “mothers” in a 2022 budget proposal. Similarly, the Obama administration preferred the term “undocumented immigrants” over “illegal immigrant” in official text and presidential speeches.

Overall, the White House’s clarification on banned words in government documents provides insight into the approach taken by the Trump administration regarding language use in official communications.