Trump Administration Punishes Associated Press for ‘Weaponizing Language’

For a long time, indeed – perhaps at every point up and until now, every writer believed themselves to be a victim of sorts, to the AP Manual of Style, or the “stylebook,” or just “AP-style” – the rules set rigidly in place, rules that would not tolerate that hyphen at the beginning of the last clause, rules that everyone “says” they know and follow. Yes, every writer and every reader knows of the AP Style guide, and at best there existed a working “detente” in the situation – nothing warm, more just reliance on raw functionality. Everyone got what they needed out of it. Until now.

Very suddenly, the Trump administration has gone after the Associated Press and its style guide, even though this is primarily about the use of the term “Gulf of America,” it’s now drifting into a bit broader battle. The Trump administration is angry because it says that the AP guide has “weaponized” language and that the Trump administration will be doling out punishment of its own against the AP as a news reporting enterprise, due to the enforcement of the Style guide. We are told that this is far bigger than just “The Gulf of America” stuff.

The White House blocked an AP reporter from President Trump's news conference with India's prime minister over AP's style decision to stick with the name “Gulf of Mexico." apnews.com/article/ap-w…

— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) 2025-02-14T03:47:20.114Z

And so that would make some sense. The AP Manuel of Style or “The AP Stylebook” is an unapologetically aggressive bundle of laws as applied to the written language (Not linguistics) and as such can be political but only in the sense that being radically fair in doling out equal dignity to all is a political position and not a principled philosophical belief or even “need” in this world. The White House sure doesn’t see the Stylebook as hovering on a plane above retail politics of the very worst type, playing to our most base instincts.

“This isn’t just about the Gulf of America,” White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich said. “This is about AP weaponizing language through their stylebook to push a partisan worldview in contrast with the traditional and deeply held beliefs of many Americans and many people around the world.”

Many people around the world deeply hold on to the idea that there is nothing wrong with use of the “n-word” because racism isn’t wrong in their minds, and thus free speech is such that they believe the n-word should be allowed to be used in modern discourse or we’re not free… Many people believe such a thing, and we don’t give them a moment to gasp for breath because they don’t deserve it. It is getting old hearing the Trump administration gaslight us about offending them with what were, up until now, just the mainstream consensus as to what is acceptable. Now we’re told we better accept those we previously rejected, or else… Meanwhile, the AP had to address the issue and did so by beginning with the obvious. Rules don’t have an agenda other than the rules themselves:

“AP is a global, fact-based, nonpartisan news organization with thousands of customers around the world who span the political spectrum,” said Lauren Easton, the outlet’s vice president of corporate communications . Easton added that AP maintains that its guidance is just that—guidance. “The Stylebook doesn’t align with any particular agenda,” Easton said, adding that members and customers choose whether or not to follow its recommendations.

I know this sounds insane but maybe the Trump administration could just sit back and think about my defense of the AP Stylebook (Wow, this is odd). Perhaps it is just that the AP does it more than anyone else – publishing the written word to communicate facts as established on the ground, and thus have a level of expertise as to how those facts get absorbed most efficiently, with maximum clarity, least amount of bias leaked through, most dignity, most respectful of all parties involved, maybe it is just “best” that we all have a leader in the field that organizes how we go about things and that it’s actually okay to simply follow? That if we embrace it with warmth, we need not fear it or reject it with animosity or feel threatened? Because the White House’s accusations sound like an aggressive shot specifically meant to prevent them having to actually understand the underlying rationale.

In a sense, then – it does get back to “Gulf of America,” the original justification for kicking the AP reporter out of the White House and off Air Force One, and the AP’s refusal to use the term “Gulf of America” as going against its rules. The world knows the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico going back at least until the Louisiana Purchase, and a new name isn’t something contemplated as happening overnight. The Gulf of America is like a placeholder in use for every race or gender category, categories for which the AP has sympathy in the form of proper citations, bestowing the level of respect commensurate with a group of people holding themselves out as just that, a group. The Trump administration has little tolerance for the idea that we should hold out all as deserving equal dignity.

What else is the Trump administration saying when it says the AP is pushing “a partisan worldview in contrast with the traditional and deeply held beliefs” of many Americans – they aren’t saying that they are right to have such beliefs, or that such beliefs even should be tolerated (Not saying it out loud), so what could the administration be saying if anything but “We should be able to say what we want and we want this group to not even exist!” Something such as that?

The administration wants to legitimize the deeply-felt hatred of some, not even all that many people, but some – have deep hatred for ideas and people of whom they’re not familiar, usually have been told a lot of mistruths, there is a lot of misunderstanding, fear, and distrust. The AP Stylebook blasts all of that by giving it all dignity, telling everyone how to treat every circumstance, how it shall be labeled, abbreviations, all of it – the Stylebook “normalizes” that which the Trump administration wants held out as forever aberrant.

There is no middle ground here, not unless the administration wants to simply accept what all writers eventually come to understand. We all want to communicate, and thus we all best use the same rules, the same “space,” such that we’re speaking the same language about the same people, or we’re wasting time and risking our legitimacy. Buy in or explain out. But this administration isn’t into explaining itself, nor will it ever tolerate being told what to do as “normal” or expected. Just the way they are and that’s telling.

God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter or X at @JasonMiciak and now follow me on Bluesky

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