No, looks like it was started late in Obama's second term. As for the current guys, they would probably use Instrument Serif for body text if they could.

I googled Instrument Serif and google fonts page is telling me something with it's choice of lorem ipsum https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Instrument+Serif

I don't hate it.. it's a bit too condensed for my taste though.

Oh it's the "transhumanist serif" every AI startup uses now.

Color me... unperplexed

Went down a short rabbit hole from this comment and they actually are using a condensed serif font like that on www.whitehouse.gov titles at the moment.

No, this was a project by 18F and the U.S. Web Design group that debued several years back.

That's just the State Department. The federal government is a huge amalgamation of agencies, each with its own set of goals, responsibilities, and quirks. Even down at the local level, I've had a hard time getting the county and the city to agree on who owns the storm drain where the neighborhood connects to the highway.

As a utility designer in my day job who frequents HN for real fun, this comment hits hard.

This predates the Calibri-Times debacle by quite a few years.

Funnily enough, if you Google "Calibri", the page itself is in Calibri. I've never seen that happen for any other font.

It also works for Open Sans, on my Linux system at least. Probably only works for fonts that are installed and/or can be licensed for this.

It’s an Easter egg, also for Times New Roman and a few others.

Works for comic sans.

Try Garamond!