How ‘Trumpspeak’ is rebranding government
WASHINGTON—“Climate change” is out. “Resilience” is in. “Victims of domestic violence” are now “victims of crime.”
Foreign aid for refugee rights has become aid to protect “national security.” “Clean energy investment” has been transformed into just plain “energy” investment.
The U.S. federal government is undergoing a rebranding under President Donald Trump — although not all at his direction.
As Trump sets radical new priorities for Washington, some officials working on hot-button issues such as the environment, nutrition and foreign aid are changing the names of offices and programs to avoid being targeted by the new administration.
While entire departments are changing their missions under Trump, many of these rebranding efforts reflect a desire to blend in or escape notice, not a change in what officials do day-to-day — at least not yet, according to 19 current and former employees across the government, and non-profit officials who receive federal funding.
“I think you’re seeing a combination of people trying to stay below the radar so they don’t get whacked, and also trying to morph so they can accommodate what the new administration’s point of view is going to be,” said Adam Cohen, who served as deputy undersecretary for science and energy at the Energy Department from October 2015 until this month.
Some of the most striking examples of rebranding come from agencies dealing with energy and the environment, where references to “climate change” and “clean energy” have sometimes disappeared.
In late April, the “Energy Investor Center” replaced the Department of Energy’s “Clean Energy Investment Center,” which was founded in early 2016 to help the private sector better learn how to put money into renewable technologies.
Language about the focus on the “clean and alternative” energy market vanished from the program’s website.
At two other federal agencies — the EPA and the Federal Highway Administration — programs have shifted to talking about “resilience” rather than “climate change.”
The EPA’s “Climate Ready Water Utilities” site was renamed “Creating Resilient Water Utilities” — even before the inauguration, the timing of which suggests it was unlikely that Trump appointees were involved in the change.
Non-governmental organizations reliant on federal funds are getting the message, too.
One federally funded international aid organization that works in more than 50 countries now highlights its development work as a counterweight to violent extremism and a vital tool to shore up the national security interests of the United States. “The work is the same, but it’s a question of talking a little bit more about one thing versus another,” said a group official, who spoke only if the group would not be identified.
Many of the rebranding efforts reflect a desire to blend in or escape notice, not a change in what officials do day to day