Trump’s Ban on Words Is Literally Wrong

The systematic eradication of voices in the U.S. that contradict its white, male social narrative is a reality.

The good times are over in the U.S. now that MAGA craziness prevails. Since applying the mantra “Make America Great Again,” millions of Americans have had to tighten their belts. Hidden behind the overhyped cure-all election slogan, which proves to be an indictment of inadequacy, lies a severe austerity program that now, more than ever before, promotes a systematic redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top.

Programs and resources aren’t the only things being erased — words are too. Even Washington’s street mural on “Black Lives Matter Plaza,” featuring 35-foot-tall capital letters, is currently being dismantled. What sounds like an Orwellian nightmare is actually happening. Linguistic cleansing is underway in the U.S.

It is being carried out on the orders of Donald Trump, who, with a snap of his fingers, can transform the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America. According to New York Times’ research, more than 200 expressions have been banned from official federal terminology since Trump took office. These include the English words “climate change,” “racism,” “diversity,” and even “woman.” On what grounds? The aim is to guarantee more neutral and unbiased communication at an official level.

Officially, it does not constitute a legal ban. However, the threat of funding cuts creates a climate of fear and self-restraint. This form of power exertion, which drives people into insecurity and submission, is not unique to Trump. It also aligns with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, to which U.S. Vice President JD Vance — who notably appears as an expert in nonviolent communication and Ukrainian menswear — has strong ties.

Even the way Elon Musk shuts off funding to various federal agencies closely adheres to the blueprint of the arch-conservative think tank. After all, it was Musk who claimed during a Joe Rogan podcast that: “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”

Trump, Vance, Musk — the trio of white alpha males. This precise constellation emphasizes what is so unsettling about linguistic cleansing: It reflects the fears of dominant white males losing their societal privileges. In the face of demographic change, the patriarchy prefers to rely on populist demagogy rather than diversity to perpetuate its crumbling hierarchy.

This is how marginalized people are rendered voiceless. Their stories and struggles throughout the centuries, their needs, their very existence — all this is to be erased from public consciousness. It is a subtle yet sinister form of exclusion that pushes whole sections of society into obscurity: ethnic minorities, single mothers, childless women, queer individuals of all kinds, people with mental health conditions or physical disabilities, and many more.

Recently, even the proud legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen was temporarily removed from the U.S. military history curriculum. Black U.S. fighter pilots who undertook outstanding flying missions against Hitler’s Luftwaffe — simply erased. As a member of the U.S. Air Force, my African American father served under fire during World War II, and I am also a U.S. military veteran. I therefore found this omission particularly offensive.

Trump has since backtracked, suggesting that someone acted out of excessive obedience. Whatever the case, a dangerous reshaping of history is already in progress.

Back in 2021, in Southlake, Texas, a school district official suggested balancing books about the Holocaust with books denying the existence of the Shoah. Currently, school textbooks in Florida downplay slavery by referring to the enslaved Africans as Black immigrants. Both states have been governed by Republicans for over two decades, with strong right-wing nationalist and evangelical influence.

In its frantic attempt to defend its interpretation of reality, the white patriarchy validates the very criticism it so vehemently repudiates: its exclusionary and repressive tendencies.