White House says it didn't create a banned word list, leaves language choices up to agencies

Media outlets in recent weeks have promoted reports that the Trump administration has banned hundreds of words from official documents, including words such as "diverse" or "LGBTQ" or "unconscious bias." 

Trump has signed 92 executive orders since his inauguration in January, including ones that have targeted diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the public and private sectors, as well as ones addressing transgender issues, such as banning biological men from playing in women's sports or banning transgender surgical procedures for children. 

A handful of the executive orders rescinded Biden-era policies, such as ending DEI programs that were woven into the fabric of the federal government during his term. 

The New York Times reported that about 250 words were removed from the Trump administration's lexicon or used with discretion. The list included a handful of words that could defy Trump's executive orders on trans issues and DEI, including: "they/them," "breastfeed + people," "antiracist," "people + uterus" or "confirmation bias." 

A White House official told Reuters in February that the majority of words listed as allegedly banned did not need to be removed from external communications and documents, arguing the agency likely misinterpreted Trump's executive orders on gender ideology. 

The White House specifically identified words such as "gender," "inclusion," "identity," "diversity," "intersex," "equity," "equitable," "transgender" and "trans" as ones that do not need to be prohibited in order to comply with Trump's executive orders, according to Reuters. 

The Biden administration, for example, used the phrase "birthing people" instead of "mothers" in a 2022 budget proposal before the phrase - and similar ones such as "menstruators" - were used by other federal officials and agencies. The Obama administration favored the phrase "undocumented immigrants" versus "illegal immigrant" in official text and presidential speeches.