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 and 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 analyze, learn, improve and engage in the kind of open and informed discourse that a well-functioning democracy requires.

Already, Trump’s linguistic crackdown has enabled the "Department of Government Efficiency" to terminate 85 government contracts, collectively worth an estimated $1 billion, tied to diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as accessibility, often on the basis of artificial intelligence-conducted word searches. All references to climate change have been purged from government websites. Research grants that mention “climate” or “racial disparities” have been frozen. Museums that promote inclusive narratives, such as the Smithsonian, have been threatened with funding cuts.

As Confucius predicted, these changes are having ripple effects. Corporations like Walmart, Meta and McDonald’s have scaled back DEI programs, fearing retaliation from the Trump administration. Major banks and funds, from Goldman Sachs to JPMorgan, have distanced themselves from sustainability commitments, wary of the political and legal backlash.

The impact of these changes is likely to reverberate well beyond the US, affecting institutions, corporations and academic research worldwide.

Already, Europe’s extreme right — exemplified by Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD), France’s National Rally and Spain’s Vox — is echoing Trump’s rhetoric, disparaging “woke” concepts like diversity and sustainability. The AfD is known for dismissing sustainability policies as symptoms of a “hysteria” that is burdening German industry.

Trump’s linguistic campaign may also influence European companies and research as a result of direct pressure. US embassies across Europe sent letters to firms and other entities that do business with the US government, demanding that they certify that they are not running DEI programs.

The English language is a shared tool, but it bends to America’s political will, which means that Trump’s linguistic warfare threatens the entire international community, which must preserve the integrity of essential concepts. The key is not to find new ways to discuss them, but rather to reclaim their names and position them as universal ideas whose meanings transcend partisan political agendas.

The European Union — which loves nothing if not naming things —is the obvious candidate to take the lead. But the European Commission has remained silent so far. Not a single high-ranking EU official has issued a strong response to Trump’s attacks on language. This is a major missed opportunity for Europe to show principled global leadership at a time when it is seeking to bolster its “strategic autonomy,” and to ensure that the concepts it is defending are not empty.

As its seemingly endless proclamations on “green transitions” and “inclusive growth” attest, the EU talks often and effusively about sustainability and inclusion. But it often lacks the resolve needed to turn talk into action. To reclaim the words that Trump is trying to erase requires substantive policies, such as a binding EU sustainability framework that enforces corporate ESG compliance.

Just as Trump’s lack of commitment to NATO has prompted a long-overdue political awakening in Europe, his attacks on the language of sustainability and inclusion should catalyze Europe’s efforts in both areas — and its assertion of global leadership more broadly. The alternative — allowing Europe’s future to be shaped by internal populist forces and external manipulation — is a formula for deepening vulnerability and greater fragmentation. After all, when words lose their meaning, they lose their power to inspire and unite.

Ana Palacio

Ana Palacio, a former foreign minister of Spain and former senior vice president and general counsel of the World Bank Group, is a visiting lecturer at Georgetown University. The views expressed here are the writer's own. — Ed.

(Project Syndicate)


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