Trump administration says sign language services 'intrude' on Trump's ability to control his image

The Trump administration is arguing that requiring real-time American Sign Language interpretation of events like White House press briefings “would severely intrude on the President’s prerogative to control the image he presents to the public," part of a lawsuit seeking to require the White House to provide the services.

Department of Justice attorneys haven't elaborated on how doing so might hamper the portrayal President Donald Trump seeks to present to the public. But overturning policies encompassing diversity, equity and inclusion have become a hallmark of his second administration, starting with his very first week back in the White House.

The National Association for the Deaf sued the Trump administration in May, arguing that the cessation of American Sign Language interpretation — which the Biden administration had used regularly — represented “denying hundreds of thousands of deaf Americans meaningful access to the White House’s real-time communications on various issues of national and international import.” The group also sued during Trump's first administration, seeking ASL interpretation for briefings related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a June court filing opposing the association's request for a preliminary injunction, reported Thursday by Politico, attorneys for the Justice Department argued that being required to provide sign language interpretation for news conferences “would severely intrude on the President’s prerogative to control the image he presents to the public,” also writing that the president has “the prerogative to shape his Administration’s image and messaging as he sees fit.”

Government attorneys also argued that it provides the hard of hearing or Deaf community with other ways to access the president's statements, like online transcripts of events, or closed captioning. The administration has also argued that it would be difficult to wrangle such services in the event that Trump spontaneously took questions from the press, rather than at a formal briefing.

A White House spokesperson did not immediately comment Friday on the ongoing lawsuit or answer questions about the administration's argument regarding the damage of interpretation services to Trump's “image.”

In their June filing, government attorneys questioned if other branches of government were being held to a similar standard if they didn’t provide the same interpretative services as sought by the association.

As home to Gallaudet University, the world’s premier college for the deaf and hard of hearing, Washington likely has an ample pool of trained ASL interpreters into which the White House could tap. Mayor Muriel Bowser has made ASL interpretation a mainstay of her appearances, including a pair of interpreters who swap in and out.

Last month, a federal judge rejected that and other objections from the government, issuing an order requiring the White House to provide American Sign Language interpreting for Trump and Leavitt's remarks in real time. The White House has appealed the ruling, and while the administration has begun providing American Sign Language interpreting at some events, there's disagreement over what services it has to supply.

On his first week back in office, Trump signed a sweeping executive order putting a stop to diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the U.S. government. In putting his own imprint on the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in January issued an order stating that DEI policies were “incompatible" with the department's mission,

This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered diplomatic correspondence to return to the more traditional Times New Roman font, arguing that the Biden administration's 2023 shift to the sans serif Calibri font had emerged from misguided diversity, equity and inclusion policies pursued by his predecessor.

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

An American Sign Language interpreter, right, signs as President Donald Trump, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, speaks following the lighting of the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, near the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

An American Sign Language interpreter, right, signs as President Donald Trump, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, speaks following the lighting of the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, near the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

An American Sign Language interpreter, right, signs as President Donald Trump arrives for the lighting of the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, near the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

President Donald Trump, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, speaks following the lighting of the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, near the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

NAPLES, Italy (AP) — At long last, vindication has arrived for an Oscar-winning composer who sought to prove he was just as capable of breathing life into Italy’s grand theaters as into gritty Hollywood films.

On Friday night, Naples’ Teatro San Carlo staged Ennio Morricone’s only opera, “Partenope,” three full decades after its composition. It is inspired by the mythical siren who drowned herself after failing to enchant Ulysses, her body washing ashore and becoming a settlement that grew over millennia into the seaside city of Naples.

When Morricone wrote “Partenope” in 1995, he was already the world-famous creator of the theme to the Spaghetti Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and haunting soundtracks for epic films such as “The Untouchables” and “Once Upon a Time in America.”

He earned an Oscar for lifetime achievement in 2007, but his compositions never resounded in the hallowed halls of opera houses — viewed in his home country as the elite musical echelon. To his great chagrin, Partenope gathered dust for decades; Morricone died without seeing it performed.

“In the end, he read as a sign of destiny the fact he would not make his debut in the opera world,” Alessandro De Rosa, a close collaborator who coauthored Morricone's autobiography, said in an interview. “I’m sure that if he were alive now, he would have taken the challenge and would have dialogued with the orchestra and the director, tirelessly, like a young kid.”

Director Vanessa Beecroft and conductor Riccardo Frizza had to find their way through the visionary work without the benefit of those notes.

“It would have been wonderful to be able to talk to Morricone about his musical choices … but we had to understand them from what he left us and tried to interpret them in the best way,” Frizza said.

For instance, he chose not to use violins in this orchestra, instead favoring flutes, harps and horns, which appear in Greek mythology, Frizza explained.

“Then you have the modern instruments, lots of percussion, with the Neapolitan sounds provided by tambourines and putipu’,” he added, referencing a friction drum used in local folk music.

Teatro San Carlo was filled with anticipation on Thursday evening as Neapolitans attended an open rehearsal. Free tickets were snapped up in just a few hours.

“It was such a long wait, that’s why we are here today,” said Alfonso Ieneroso as he entered the theater.

The mythical Partenope is part of Naples’ culture, with tradition suggesting her voice represents the city’s enduring spirit. The original Greek settlement was named for her. She is depicted at monuments like the Fontana della Sirena, a fountain that has become one of the city's symbols. Young children all along the Gulf of Naples, living under Mount Vesuvius’ shadow, learn the legend of Partenope from their parents.

And like Morricone's opera, Naples itself spent decades downtrodden and overlooked, but is enjoying resurgence: The U.N. recognized its pizza makers as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity; It featured on foreign media lists of must-visit destinations; Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels were acclaimed bestsellers that became an HBO series; and its soccer team in 2023 took home the nation’s top league trophy for the first time since Maradona played in the 1980s — then won again in May.

Naples has also been celebrating its 2,500th anniversary this year, and Morricone’s opera marks the culmination of festivities. The protagonist in his adaptation is a woman who, after her husband dies and she is separated from her best friend, refuses the consolation of being transformed into a distant constellation. Instead, she asks the gods to let her stretch her wings along the gulf on which an immortal city will arise.

The production explores the link between the ancient legend and the modern city’s identity, as two sopranos embody Partenope simultaneously, reflecting her dual nature as body and myth.

Morricone originally composed the one-act opera — free of charge — to accompany a libretto by authors Guido Barbieri and Sandro Cappelletto for a small festival in Positano, just south of Naples on the Amalfi coast. But it was not to be: the festival went bankrupt and Partenope was shelved.

There were several attempts to revive their work, including one between 1998 and 2000 with the Teatro Massimo of Palermo. But that project ultimately ran aground when a director couldn’t be secured.

“In those years Morricone had the torment of not being accepted as a composer of what he called ‘absolute music,’ as he was identified with his popular movie scores,” Barbieri, one of the libretto’s authors, said in an interview. Cappelletto said that, in a conversation with the two authors in 2017, three years before his death, Morricone appeared “at peace” with his music career.

Partenope has inspired several productions over the centuries, including operas by renowned composers George Frideric Handel and Antonio Vivaldi in the 18th century, and a 2024 movie by Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino. Morricone’s work is finally coming alive to join their ranks.

“It was a great pleasure to listen to Morricone’s music, the real protagonist of this opera,” said Giovanni Capuano, a 26-year-old cinema student, after Thursday's rehearsal. “His spirit is back and has enchanted us.”

Zampano reported from Rome.

People queue at the San Carlo Theatre, in Naples, Italy, to attend at the general rehearsal of Ennio Morricone's only opera, Partenope, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

Actors perform during the general rehearsal of Ennio Morricone's only opera, Partenope, at the San Carlo Theatre, in Naples, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

Actors perform during the general rehearsal of Ennio Morricone's only opera, Partenope, at the San Carlo Theatre, in Naples, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

EDS NOTE: NUDITY - Actors perform during the general rehearsal of Ennio Morricone's only opera, Partenope, at the San Carlo Theatre, in Naples, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

Actors perform during the general rehearsal of Ennio Morricone's only opera, Partenope, at the San Carlo Theatre, in Naples, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)