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.

  • greedytacothief@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 hours 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.

    • fantoozie@midwest.social
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      33 minutes ago

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

      • scbasteve7@lemm.ee
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        15 minutes 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

  • CBYX@feddit.org
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    3 hours ago

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

  • Wren@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    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??

    • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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      4 hours ago

      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?

      • fantoozie@midwest.social
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        11 minutes 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.

    • mustbe3to20signs@feddit.org
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      5 hours ago

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

  • 野麦さん@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    10 hours 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.

    • Tetragrade@leminal.space
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      5 hours 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?

    • Saleh@feddit.org
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      8 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.

      • stembolts@programming.dev
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        10 hours ago

        I read comments like this and all I can feel is astonishment that anyone’s life is so empty that they can dedicate time to caring about this.

        Like, it sounds made up, but honestly whether true or not… like, who cares? It’s so trivial and life has so much to offer. This comment is the first and last time I’ll ever think about this.

        • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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          10 hours ago

          Well, it’s fact. Some truckers and trucker’s groups have theorized that the increase in CDL involved accidents since the relaxing of this rule are caused instead of simply correlated.

          I actually agree with enforcing rules like this so even though trump’s an asshole, this one might improve safety.

          • mechoman444@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

            • Benjamin Franklin
          • coherent_domain@infosec.pub
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            5 hours ago

            I think it would be great if you can list some credible source before asserting a fact.

            Also I have a question, why do truck drivers speaking English makes the road more safe? As long as they understand the required knowledge, I don’t see the language they speak matters in terms of safety, but that could just be my lack of understanding in this area.

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    14 hours ago

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

    • sowitzer@lemm.ee
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      2 hours ago

      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.

    • iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com
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      9 hours ago

      Many laws are written to give the executive branch leeway in defining the details of how a law is to be implemented. This makes sense, assuming everyone is acting in good faith; technologies, science, standards, and best practices all evolve over time.

      Laws are usually written in a way to ensure Congressional oversight, to prevent the executive either intentionally or accidentally from subverting their will. But with a treasonous President and a complicit Congress, here we are… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • DBT@lemmy.world
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    20 hours 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.

    • Mac@mander.xyz
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      12 hours ago

      Meanwhile how many accidents are caused by dumb bitches on their phones?

    • Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      18 hours 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
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        17 hours 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.

          • superkret@feddit.org
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            2 hours ago

            Being able to identify traffic signs would be enough.
            You don’t actually need to be able to read, just memorize what the writing on a dozen-or-so signs means.

    • socphoenix@midwest.social
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      19 hours 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
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        19 hours 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.

      • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        It’s already part of the federal commercial driver regulations too

        If it is already part of the rules, what makes this EO a bad thing? Sounds like it’s just enforcing a status-quo that nobody had an issue with.

        “Interpreters are prohibited during the administration of skills tests. Applicants must be able to understand and respond to verbal commands and instructions in English by a skills test examiner.” CDL Standards

        • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          What’s bad about performative actions in the form of executive orders applying rules to situations the president has clearly demonstrated he doesn’t understand?

        • Thistlewick@lemmynsfw.com
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          12 hours ago

          Because this EO isn’t about speaking English for road safety. The same way locking trans people out of bathrooms isn’t about protecting women. Or how deporting green card holders and naturalised citizens isn’t about US Security.

          There are so many examples of this from the last 100 days. The US is honestly a lost cause at this point.

        • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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          15 hours ago

          If it is already part of the rules, what makes this EO a bad thing?

          It’s a power grab by the executive that will be used to, for example, harass minorities driving on the street. If it’s already part of the rules then it doesn’t need an executive order.

        • socphoenix@midwest.social
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          18 hours ago

          From my personal experience the bigotry towards non white non male folks in the industry can be pretty extreme, so off the very top of my head I can think of several ways a bombastic EO could inflame that worse. Not to mention I’d like my government to focus on fixing shit instead of meaningless performative bullshit

  • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    This is already a Commercial Driver’s License requirement. What is the specific issue here?

    “Interpreters are prohibited during the administration of skills tests. Applicants must be able to understand and respond to verbal commands and instructions in English by a skills test examiner.” CDL Standards

    • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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      18 hours ago

      Can’t pull someone for “driving while brown”, but you can pull someone over for “driving while not speaking English, which I just concluded from you being brown”

    • MDCCCLV@lemmy.ca
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      13 hours ago

      You don’t need to speak English to know turn left and stop.

      • uselessRN@lemm.ee
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        2 hours ago

        You’re right. You just need to be able to read, write, and understand instructions. Wait that sounds like knowing the language

  • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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    19 hours 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.