Trump Executive Order Makes English the Rule of the Road
The 47th president of the United States, Donald Trump has already signed numerous executive orders in the first year of his second term in office. One that he signed near the very start was to make English the official language of the United States. Now, he is going a step further than that by signing an executive order that applies specifically to commercial driving: English knowledge is now required.
Details
That is a bit of a misnomer, as understanding English was a requirement up until 2016, when then-president Barack Obama placed a pause of enforcement of the rule. Now, it is back on the menu. The executive order outlines:
“Proficiency in English, which I designated as our official national language in Executive Order 14224 of March 1, 2025 (Designating English as the Official Language of the United States), should be a non-negotiable safety requirement for professional drivers. They should be able to read and understand traffic signs, communicate with traffic safety, border patrol, agricultural checkpoints, and cargo weight-limit station officers. Drivers need to provide feedback to their employers and customers and receive related directions in English. This is common sense.”
The executive order outlines precisely a rollback of the rollback from the Obama years, as it later says “a violation of the English language proficiency requirement results in the driver being placed out-of-service.”
The executive order also addresses other aspects of the trucking industry, including more scrupulous recordkeeping of CDLs, and a vague general promise to improve the livelihood of truckers:
“Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Transportation shall identify and begin carrying out additional administrative, regulatory, or enforcement actions to improve the working conditions of America’s truck drivers.”
Conclusion
The executive order does not outright ban other language communication within the trucking industry (Spanish and Punjabi are two popular other languages within the trucking industry, to name a few), but makes practical knowledge of English a requirement as well. As long as drivers can read signs and communicate with law enforcement, everything should be fine with minimal burden, similar to how regulations prohibit a driver from being so inebriated that they cannot read signs.
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