280

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.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] DBT@lemmy.world 139 points 1 month 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 51 points 1 month 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 46 points 1 month 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.

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 30 points 1 month 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 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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.

[-] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago

Being able to read English would be important, not so much speaking it.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Witchfire@lemmy.world 89 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Won't this disqualify half his illiterate base

[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 40 points 1 month ago
[-] toy_boat_toy_boat@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

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

[-] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)
[-] toy_boat_toy_boat@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

i don't see why you might think i disagree ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago
[-] toy_boat_toy_boat@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Word history!

1784, a colloquial American English alteration of darnation (itself a minced oath in place of damnation), influenced by tarnal (1790), a mild profanity, clipped from phrase by the Eternal (God), for which see eternal.

[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

Neat .... never did think about where the word 'tarnation' came from ... heard it many times and just thought it was a made up nonsense word ... never thought it had an actual history like that. Thanks!

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 72 points 1 month 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 17 points 1 month ago
[-] BombOmOm@lemmy.world 59 points 1 month 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 33 points 1 month 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"

load more comments (6 replies)
[-] ButteryNickel@lemmy.wtf 41 points 1 month ago

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

[-] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 29 points 1 month ago

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

[-] lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month 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 15 points 1 month 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.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] aramis87@fedia.io 6 points 1 month 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).

load more comments (7 replies)
[-] Darkard@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month 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.

[-] toy_boat_toy_boat@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

ah, there's the old rub. how many of trucking companies are going to be held accountable for hiring them? i'd wager it's just about as many farmers that get fucked for hiring lettuce pickers. oh yeah, how's that lettuce picking going now?

[-] Disaster@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 month ago
load more comments (13 replies)
[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 month ago

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

[-] adarza@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

oh, they still want total control.. but only of those deemed 'unworthy'. the 'big' government they want to get rid of is only the bits that watch what they (the rich fucks and their companies) do and might enforce laws that they break.

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 month 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 5 points 1 month 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.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] waz@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] hellfire103@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 month ago

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

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 month ago

That’ll help the shortage of drivers for sure 🙄

[-] UncleGrandPa@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

So cops pulling people over for a Language check?

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Saying that quiet part out loud again. The obvious ingredient is racism

[-] Pistcow@lemm.ee 5 points 1 month ago

Oof that will crash the trucking industry.

[-] aramis87@fedia.io 7 points 1 month ago

It was going to mostly crash anyway, when the ships stop coming next week, due to the tariffs.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 5 points 1 month ago

I keep on thinking of the mad tv skit with the woman who says she can't understand people with accents.

[-] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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"?

load more comments (2 replies)

Seems more and more like every headline could be: Senile Old Man Yells at the Sky*.

*with the authority of the US government.

[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

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

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

So, they will arrest people for not obeying an executive order that, and IANAL, has no basis in law? How will they be identifying these drivers? What is the justification for pulling them over?

[-] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

If they're brown, pull 'em over.

If you have to take off your sunglasses to understand their accent, arrest 'em

-From the official executive order.

[-] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago

It does seem like an excuse to call ICE.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] GrassCat@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Literally no trumpees anywhere can tell you their top three works of literature.

This is fact.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Trump can't even speak English.

[-] YesButActuallyMaybe@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

So if you happen to have a thicc Indian accent you need a second guy with you to translate English to English. Gotcha

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
280 points (97.3% liked)

Not The Onion

16340 readers
355 users here now

Welcome

We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!

The Rules

Posts must be:

  1. Links to news stories from...
  2. ...credible sources, with...
  3. ...their original headlines, that...
  4. ...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”

Please also avoid duplicates.

Comments and post content must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.

And that’s basically it!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS