'I'm a victim': Washington Post columnist turns the tables on Trump's word ban

There's a slight problem with President Donald Trump's moratorium on the use of certain words he has deemed "worrisome or problematically diversity-focused," according to Philip Bump, columnist with The Washington Post.

It seems the president himself is a repeat offender when it comes to using terms like "victim," "women," "barrier," and "political" — words the National Science Foundation has been told to flag when deciding whether a scientific research proposal should receive funding.

The Trump administration gave the NSF a list of 100 or so offending words it says promotes the dreaded Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies of liberals, and which have no place in 2025 MAGA land.

"The clear intent is to root out things that seem as though they’re focused on addressing racial or gender inequality," Bump wrote.

To help out the new administration, and "out of an abundance of caution," Bump evaluated some of Trump's own words to see if the commander-in-chief "included language that might delve unhappily into the realm of diversity, equity and inclusion. We must unhappily report that, all too often, they do."

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Bump cited Trump’s first campaign announcement, "offered at Trump Tower in June 2015, the first speech Trump made as a candidate for the 2016 Republican nomination includes a problematic term...as he’s talking about the need for quality administration staff: “not just a political hack that got the job because he made a contribution to a campaign, which is the way all jobs, just about, are gotten.”

Bump called the 2024 campaign announcement "even more alarming from a DEI perspective. In this speech, Trump used the terms 'gender,' 'women' and, once again, 'political.' He also used another red-flag term, twice in a row: 'I'm a victim. I will tell you, I'm a victim.'"

Bump found a reprieve in Trump's 2018 State of the Union address, which "managed to avoid any of the terms for which NSF grants are now being scrubbed."

And, finally, Bump looked at Trump’s inaugural addresses. "Both in 2017 and last month, Trump used terms that would be flagged by the NSF. Eight years ago, he made reference to prejudice. A few weeks ago, it was gender."

"We must now report with regret that this entire article has been flagged for including a surfeit of problematic words," Bump wrote. "Please suspend your reading of it while it is policed for compliance with what the Trump administration views as acceptable."

Read Bump's opinion piece in The Washington Post here.