During the past few months, we’ve witnessed the gutting of our federal government; Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has created chaos by laying off thousands of government employees, leaving agencies like the Federal Aviation Agency struggling to function with skeleton crews. But quietly, beneath this chaos, the Trump administration is pushing a much broader, more dangerous agenda.
Revealed through internal memos exchanged between government agencies, the Trump administration has circulated a list of words that are no longer allowed in federal agency work. Even more alarmingly, these words are also banned in research, reports and other materials produced by organizations receiving federal funding. The list has not been publicly released, but leaked documents indicate that the prohibited words include terms like “climate change,” “diversity,” “transgender” and “science-based.” By stripping federal agencies and their partners of the ability to even use these words, the administration is attempting to exert control over public discourse itself.
Plain and simple, this is censorship. By dictating which words can and cannot be used in writing, the administration is actively rewriting the rules of what can be discussed within the government. Agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reportedly been directed to scrub online materials, removing references to topics like climate change and transgender health. These restrictions apply to federally funded work as well, so the effects spill far beyond Washington, muzzling scientists, researchers and policy experts across the country.
The implications are dire. Consider that nearly 40% of basic scientific research in the U.S. is funded by federal agencies. If scientists are not allowed to use the term “climate change,” how can they communicate the urgency of the climate crisis? If healthcare researchers cannot use the word “transgender,” how can they research a dangerously under–researched community? The administration is not suppressing entire conversations, but shaping public policy through erasure.
This is not the first time we have seen such a tactic. Authoritarian regimes throughout history have used language control as a means of social and political dominance. When a government controls language, it controls thought. It redefines reality on its own terms and punishes those who refuse to comply. The U.S. has long prided itself on being a democracy where ideas, even controversial or inconvenient ones, can be debated openly. That very ideal is now under threat.
We cannot allow this to go unnoticed or unchallenged. Free speech is the foundation upon attempting to restrict the thoughts we think. The American people must push back against this. which our democracy stands for, and when a government moves to restrict the words we use, it is the government that dictates our free discourse. If we don’t fight for our words today, we may wake up tomorrow to find our voices gone entirely. We must demand transparency, fight for the right to speak freely and refuse to let our voices go unheard.
