General Discussion

After the president was sworn in — he included a “Gulf of America” reference in his inaugural remarks — his administration started leaning into the bizarre rhetorical campaign, forcing agencies to use the Trump-approved phrase.

But it now appears the broader effort is extending beyond just governmental departments. NBC News reported:

The Associated Press said the White House violated the First Amendment today when it barred an AP reporter from entering an executive order signing. The AP said the White House restricted the reporter’s access after the news organization did not update its editorial standards renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”

In other words, one of the nation’s largest news organizations was told that it was effectively being punished for calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of Mexico. If The Associated Press’ concerns are correct, the White House had some kind of trade in mind: If the AP wants access, it should use the phrase the president likes.....

The day after the alleged Oval Office incident involving an AP journalist, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt faced additional questions about what transpired. It did not go well.

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3lhytrfr3l62p

Link to tweet

While the controversy surrounding The Associated Press is important in its own right, there’s also a larger concern about the White House and its approach to language. As The New York Times summarized:

Of all the changes underway in Washington, one of the deepest has to do with the very language that is spoken here. In order to remake the government, President Trump and his administration are remaking the language used to describe the government. An entire lexicon of progressive terminology nurtured by the last administration has been squelched. In its place is a new vocabulary, honed by the president and echoed by his many imitators in the capital. It is a vocabulary containing many curious uses of doublespeak.

We’re no longer just talking about a twisted form of conservative political correctness, with Republicans calling the estate tax the “death tax,” while labeling big corporations “job creators.” Those phrases are part of a partisan game that’s silly, but largely inconsequential.....

If all of this sounds rather Orwellian, that's because it is