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MAGA fans are rejoicing on social media in favor of President Donald Trump's plan to sign an executive order requiring commercial truck drivers to speak English.

Breitbart News reported that Trump would sign the order Monday evening because "President Trump believes that English is a non-negotiable safety requirement for professional drivers." Last month, Trump designated English as "the official language of the United States."

"This is such a big deal! So grateful for this, the roads will be much safer. Like many, I have seen many accidents or near accidents from unqualified drivers," posted @coffeegirlvegas.

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[-] DBT@lemmy.world 194 points 3 months ago

"This is such a big deal! So grateful for this, the roads will be much safer. Like many, I have seen many accidents or near accidents from unqualified drivers," posted @coffeegirlvegas.

Oh yea? You and many others have witnessed many accidents that were due to a truck driver’s inability to speak English?

You dumb bitch.

[-] socphoenix@midwest.social 72 points 3 months ago

It’s already part of the federal commercial driver regulations too… so no. No they have not. The most they’ve seen is someone with a heavy accent and maybe broken English.

[-] DBT@lemmy.world 57 points 3 months ago

I’m willing to bet the most they’ve seen is some accidents involving trucks, with no knowledge of what happened or who was driving.

[-] Zero22xx 35 points 3 months ago

That's one of the infuriating things about these people. They'll just make up BS that makes Trump seem reasonable. Trump does this English only thing, and now suddenly non-english truck drivers causing accidents is a thing, something that's been a problem all along and thank Jesus he's finally fixing it. Even though this was never actually a real issue that anyone even imagined before today.

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The number of truck drivers whos first language wasn't English who made deliveries for the distributer I worked with recently was high. The number of times that speaking to them came into the scope of their job was 0. They pulled up, backed a truck up at 3:30am once a week and handed us an invoice. They take a nap while we unloaded the back, then they left. Driving through the night doesn't require you to speak, it requires you to be awake and have decent eyesight/perception. They could have been missing their left leg for all we cared. Trucking is like clock work. If you want groceries with the freshest dates in stores when they open, you need as many people willing to drive overnight and early morning workers to get them from the distributors to the stores and on the shelves before anyone wants to wake up.

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[-] Witchfire@lemmy.world 107 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Won't this disqualify half his illiterate base

[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 45 points 3 months ago
[-] toy_boat_toy_boat@lemmy.world 21 points 3 months ago

to be fair it's about SPEAKING english, not READING english..

[-] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)
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[-] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 89 points 3 months ago

This is just an excuse for ICE to pull people over. And since they're a part of the executive branch, they care less about due process and laws.

[-] Xaphanos@lemmy.world 20 points 3 months ago
[-] nomugisan@lemmy.dbzer0.com 75 points 3 months ago

I have a CDL, Class A with X endorsement.

This changes nothing. CDL manuals, exams, and paperwork are all in English. What I think Trump thinks he's doing is banning Mexicans from driving trucks in the US, but this is controlled by a reciprocity agreement between the US and Mexico. Surprise, Mexicans don't have to take American exams for a CDL when they can have a license issued by the Mexican government.

Basically all this is is white supremacist virtue signaling.

[-] Saleh@feddit.org 15 points 3 months ago

I would love to see the US go a month without Mexican truck drivers. The UK pulled the same stunt with Polish truck drivers. People were rejoicing at empty shelves and overflowing garbage bins.

[-] Tetragrade@leminal.space 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Nah you're still thinking about it within the the UN/long peace legal framework. They can just do a decree that says no mexicans, and their extrajudidical thugs will take the signal to harass and murder truck drivers.

B-but that's illegal ☝️🤓

Are you going to stop them?

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[-] Disaster@sh.itjust.works 54 points 3 months ago
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[-] ButteryNickel@lemmy.wtf 47 points 3 months ago

That'll surely fix our surplus of truck drivers! /s

[-] flicker@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 3 months ago

Good news! With the tarriffs throwing cold water on freight all across the US, we won't need as many truck drivers!

...I really wish I was joking, but the fiance is OTR and freight has already slowed for him. Here's an article from February that talks about how it was already slower than expected.

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[-] cupcakezealot 44 points 3 months ago

yet another thing that has no legal standing and only exists to make the idiots think trump is accomplishing something

[-] CBYX@feddit.org 29 points 3 months ago

Good thing we won't need so many of those when supply chains dry up from tariffs!

[-] lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world 28 points 3 months ago

So the party of small government is going to administer english tests to truck drivers? maybe create some kind of language registry with proficiency levels? sounds kinda woke

[-] radix@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

Running the entire economy via a central planning committee is exactly the sort of right-wing free market the GOP voters wanted. I guess? Up is down. The past is alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.

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[-] aramis87@fedia.io 7 points 3 months ago

There was a video on ?imgur? in the past couple days, I didn't know if it was real. Guy says he was a truck driver and had stopped at a weigh station. He said they asked if he could read and write English; he said yes. They gave him a piece of paper to read, which he did; they then told him to write those words down on another piece of paper, which was filled with identical words in various handwritings. He said he saw a bunch of people off to the side in handcuffs, and said that if you couldn't speak or write English, you had to pay a $5000 "fine" on the spot, and that if you couldn't pay, you were arrested on the spot and your driving license immediately suspended. There was some condition (I don't remember what it was) where the trucking company might also have to pay a $10000 "fine".

The comments discussion pointed out that, if they had had $5000 to pay the "fine", it likely would've been taken in civil forfeiture. There was also a robust discussion on whether this was real or not, trying to find other sources, which were slim and primarily referenced questionable sources.

Edit: found the video, which apparently originated on Xitter, and was originally posted last month (I only saw it a day or so ago).

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[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 27 points 3 months ago

Trump can't even speak English.

[-] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 25 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Not sure about other states, but in mine, the ability to read and understand English is a requirement for getting a license...

Now you could make an argument that's not the same as speaking English, and my rebuttal is "should we ban mute, or speech-impared people from getting a CDL"?

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[-] Dorkyd68@lemmy.world 23 points 3 months ago

As always another trump "policy" that'll backfire spectacularly

[-] P1k1e@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

Probably won't matter much. No ships means nothing to haul

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[-] waz@lemmy.world 23 points 3 months ago
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[-] greedytacothief@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 3 months ago

Who the fuck is supposed to drive the trucks then? I live in (upstate) New York and it seems like even up there a significant population of Mexican truck drivers.

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[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 21 points 3 months ago

Executive orders are not laws. He can direct how the law in enforced, but he can't just unilaterally define new laws

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[-] Darkard@lemmy.world 20 points 3 months ago

Ah yes, those unqualified drivers that are being hired as professional truck drivers. It's their lack of English skills that are the problem.

How was their totally legitimate and law abiding employer supposed to know about their lack of ability or driving licence? They are the real victims here, being forced to hire them and all.

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[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 17 points 3 months ago

I guess he's not wrong

However this is useless as you need to speak English to get a commercial license

[-] notabot@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago

Perfect, he gets to make a big fuss for the racists, but doesn't actually have to change anything. That way there's less risk of breaking anything, and he's probably looking for a win right now.

It's a bit like decreeing that all English week day names must henceforth end in the letter 'y'. It's low risk, makes certain people think you're busy taking action, and leaves everyone else wondering what you're up to with this, taking some of the heat off of other issues.

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[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 17 points 3 months ago

The same people who said they would remove big government that tries to control everything and everyone

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[-] hellfire103@lemmy.ca 13 points 3 months ago

US economy crashing again in 3...2...1...

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[-] UncleGrandPa@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

So cops pulling people over for a Language check?

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[-] Jaysyn@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

Which will be ignored like the rest of his Executive Orders that don't actually have anything to do with the Executive.

[-] jsomae@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 months ago

Like many, I have seen many accidents or near accidents from unqualified drivers

Can anyone explain how knowing English would reduce traffic accidents? Is it because of detour signs?

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this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
552 points (100.0% liked)

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