this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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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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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 hour ago

Trump can't even speak English.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Is there any such requirement for ships in international waters?

English seems a bit too narrow, but I could see one of maybe 10 languages being a requirement (English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, Portuguese, etc)

Or perhaps, like the UN requires, at least three on this list.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Not sure about ocean shipping, but English is the standard language for Air Traffic Control. Specifically, Aviation English, but that came about through a specific need. The dangers of an air traffic accident are much higher, the training requirements for an air traffic controller or pilot already more involved then a truck driver, and English being the most spoken language in the word, when you include second and third languages, made English being the standard the most logical. I don't know Aviation English, but I would assume it strips out any regional slag or local idioms.

Truck drivers don't need a common language because traffic signage is designed to be readable without knowing being fluent in the language. If you can read the numbers and memorize what the sign shapes mean, you're fine. If something goes wrong, you can pull off to the side. Something you can't just do in an airplane.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

If it were enforced, yes. But let's be real.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 hours ago

Here, if they don't speak English, they are almost all Eastern European or Indian. Lots of Russian, Belarusian, Chechen, etc

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

How does being Mexican mean you don't speak English? Have you never met a bilingual person in your life?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

If you ever followed American politics throughout history, you can see how this can easily be abused. Before, you had to take a test to determine if you were smart enough to vote. The test was the same for both whites and minorities, but it was graded differently depending on your race.

What defines "speaking English"?. Is it a basic level, being able to read road signs or being able to speak to dispatch, the loading crew, or ems at a fundamental level? Or is it college level? Will you even be tested if you're white?

With trumps many many anti-minority policies and rhetoric, and his abuse of ice, as well as setting up black sites and selling people to the El Salvadoran concentration camp, it's hard not to think that this will be abused in some way. This is in no way a pro-English law. This is an anti-minority law.

However, cause of how dot and cdls are set up now, I doubt that much will come out of it tbh

[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Breitbart News reported that

"News"

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 hours ago (3 children)

So…. Let’s get this straight… he is signing orders to make things happen that have been happening for almost a century now??

What’s next, an executive order to make air breathable??

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 hours ago

Oh definitely not - he has been attacking the Clean Air act.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I'm assuming it's just a way to sneak literacy tests into something. You can speak english, but can you speak it well enough to pass a subjective test administered by someone who hates you for being hispanic?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 hours ago

Classic authoritarian tactics:

Target a marginalized group with an issue that you've framed as ridiculous or politically suicidal to disagree with, get public opinion riled up by manipulating their grievances through exploiting their internal prejudices, and make everything an extension of preserving national security. Once you've manipulated enough people into giving you extralegal power, simply expand the circle of 'national security threats'.

In just a few months we've watched Trump:

steal the power of the purse and the power to enact tariffs from Congress,

create a precedent for the unconstitutional arrest, detainment, and removal of legal residents and dissenting citizens,

iterate his intentions to restart American expansionism into Canada and Greenland,

Successfully twist the arm of media companies, law firms, and universities into doing his bidding,

And his other executive order directs Dept. Of Homeland Security, DoJ, and DoD to create a plan for implementation of military and national security assets to "prevent crime and protect public safety".

Welcome to the 'find out' stage.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 hours ago

Not in Trump's America. Making breathability a requirement could limit some broligarch's freedom to do business.

[–] [email protected] 70 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Are you going to stop them?

Truck drivers aren't the most progressive, but if they see fellow drivers getting harassed/attacked by four wheelers you can bet your ass they're gonna go Mad Max on their asses for that

[–] [email protected] 1 points 31 minutes ago

I hope so 🙏

[–] [email protected] 14 points 12 hours 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.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 17 hours ago (14 children)
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[–] [email protected] 47 points 18 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 192 points 1 day ago (12 children)

"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.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I keep seeing comments from people pretending that the way it is meant to be is the way it is. Trump has said the law is what he says. There is no effective defense against him declaring laws if there is no enforcement. He has defied judges orders and will continue to do so. The EOs are laws because they are being followed and nobody is stopping them.

Saying he can’t do that comes across like a right wing talking point. Trying to convince people that he can’t do what he is clearly doing, so those who are opposed will just sit around thinking the natural order will take care of it.

And it’s working. Sure there have been some protests. But no where the amount needed to make a change. Trump is now a dictator, and far too many Americans are ok with it, directly and passively.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Actually there have been some massive protests against all this BS Trump has done. The media is just complicit and basically none of these protests have been covered in any mainstream outlets. The protests ARE there but if you are not driving by them on the way to work you probably do not even know about them. Thanks MSM~!@

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 18 hours ago (6 children)
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