Trump executive order reinforces English-speaking rule for US truck drivers
The Brief
President Trump signed an executive order Monday requiring federal authorities to enforce existing English proficiency rules for commercial truck drivers.
The order highlights concerns that communication problems between drivers and officials pose a public safety risk.
It directs the Department of Transportation to rescind previous guidance that softened enforcement and to issue stricter inspection procedures.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump signed a new executive order Monday reinforcing a longstanding federal law that requires commercial truck drivers in the United States to be proficient in English.
The move comes as part of broader efforts by Trump's administration to bolster safety on American roadways and emphasize the importance of English proficiency for public communication and regulatory compliance.
The backstory
The federal rule requiring truck drivers to read and speak English has been in place since 1970, under 49 CFR § 391.11(b)(2). It mandates that commercial drivers must be able to understand traffic signs, respond to officials, and fill out reports in English.
However, a 2016 Obama-era guidance weakened enforcement by telling inspectors to use discretion in evaluating English proficiency. Critics said this made it harder to address safety concerns when language barriers arose.
President Trump's new executive order directs the Department of Transportation to rescind the 2016 guidance and requires drivers who cannot meet the English standard to be placed "out-of-service." It also builds on Trump's March 2025 move to designate English as the official U.S. language under Executive Order 14224.
What they're saying
In the executive order, Trump said federal regulators have not adequately enforced the English proficiency requirement for years, contributing to communication issues between truck drivers and officials at weigh stations, border checkpoints, and traffic stops.
"My Administration will enforce the law to protect the safety of American truckers, drivers, passengers, and others," the order states.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt expanded on the reasoning during a briefing Monday, saying that communication problems pose a "public safety risk" that must be addressed.
The executive order also calls for a review of how states issue commercial driver's licenses (CDLs) to non-domiciled drivers, looking for unusual patterns or irregularities.
Big picture view
Although the requirement for English proficiency has been federal law for decades, enforcement standards have varied. Trump's order signals a renewed emphasis on strict compliance at a time when his administration is also taking broader steps to address issues around border security, driver credentialing, and transportation safety.
The Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) are now tasked with issuing new guidance within 60 days to implement the changes.
The Source
This article is based on President Trump's executive order dated April 28, 2025, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (49 CFR § 391.11(b)(2)), White House remarks, and additional reporting from Fox News and The Associated Press. This story was reported from Los Angeles.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
34 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Fact Check: Are Marines Refusing to Go to Los Angeles?
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Posts on social media suggest Marines are refusing to enter Los Angeles during protests and rioting, but there is no evidence to suggest that is the case. Protests in L.A. against immigration enforcement began on Friday and are continuing, resulting in some isolated incidents of violence and looting. Tensions escalated when, in response, President Donald Trump announced the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to restore order, without the consent of California Governor Gavin Newsom. On Monday he said 2,000 more guardsmen would be deployed, as well as active-duty U.S. Marines. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said the use of troops was unnecessary and counterproductive. Newsom in response filed an emergency motion to block this deployment. A judge rejected this request. A curfew has been imposed in parts of the city. Los Angeles Police Department officers push protesters toward Little Tokyo in downtown LA, Calif., on June 9, 2025. Los Angeles Police Department officers push protesters toward Little Tokyo in downtown LA, Calif., on June 9, 2025. Photo by Caylo Seals/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images The Claim A number of posts on social media suggested that 700 Marines did not go to Los Angeles despite Trump's call. One post, which at the time of writing had been viewed more than 380,000 times, said: "The fact that 700 Marines didn't actually show is a bigger deal than a lot of people are acting, imo [in my opinion.] The same social media user later posted: "It's commanding officers refusing to cooperate with the Secretary of Defense's orders." The Facts However, the social media accusations appear to be based on misunderstanding of a report by Fox News' chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin. She posted on X that Marines ordered to help had not yet arrived because they were undergoing training. This is not akin to Marines refusing to cooperate with orders. A CBS News report also said that 700 Marines arrived in the area and were ready to be deployed. Reuters said they were in a staging area in Seal Beach, about 50 km south of L.A. And a New York Times report cited a U.S. Northern Command spokeswoman who reportedly said the Marines will work alongside 2,100 National Guard members who are already in the city and are expected to be deployed on Wednesday. The spokeswoman told the publication the troops would not be involved in making arrests. The Ruling False. While it appears to be true that at the time of posting on social media, Marines had not arrived in L.A, this is because of training schedules and other scheduling choices, and not because they had refused to serve or comply with orders. Newsweek contacted the Pentagon and the White House outside of normal business hours to comment on this story. FACT CHECK BY Newsweek
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
'Coward' Elon Musk Mocked On His Own Platform After Bending The Knee To Trump
Elon Musk went into damage-control mode early Wednesday as he tried to mend fences with President Donald Trump after their spectacular falling-out last week. And his critics are mocking his public show of fealty on his own platform. Musk spent some $291 million during the 2024 election cycle, most notably to help Trump, according to and became a constant presence by his side. Once in office, Trump put Musk in charge of the 'DOGE' initiative to cut government spending. But Musk left his role, attacked Trump's signature 'big beautiful bill' as a 'disgusting abomination,' and went scorched-earth against his one-time ally in a series of posts on X last week. Musk wrote that Trump won't release the files of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein because the president is named in them, shared a post in support of impeaching Trump and replacing him with Vice President JD Vance, and floated the creation of a third political party. Trump in turn threatened repercussions for Musk's businesses and warned him of 'serious consequences' if he backed Democrats for office. But Musk blinked on Wednesday. He wrote that he regretted some of his posts about Trump and said some of them 'went too far.' He also deleted many of those messages. His critics fired back:
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The Scofflaw Strongman
DONALD TRUMP SAYS HIS LATEST VENTURE into dictatorship—deploying the National Guard and Marines against American citizens, over the opposition of state and local officials—is about safeguarding the rule of law. 'If we see danger to our country and to our citizens, we'll be very, very strong in terms of law and order,' Trump told reporters on Sunday, as protests escalated in Los Angeles against his deportations. 'It's about law and order.' Don't believe it. Trump is using the Guard and the military to enforce his will, not the law. The evidence of his insincerity is what he did four years ago: When rioters were on his side, he didn't call in the Guard. He embraced the criminals, pardoned them, and purged the law enforcement officials who prosecuted them. He's a despot and a scofflaw. In the Los Angeles uprising, Trump—like every authoritarian before him—claims to be saving his country from chaos. 'Violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents,' he declared on Sunday afternoon. 'These lawless riots only strengthen our resolve.' A few hours later, he called for 'bringing in the troops . . . RIGHT NOW!!! Don't let these thugs get away with this.' And on Monday afternoon, he ridiculed any suggestion that the protesters were peaceful. 'Just one look at the pictures and videos of the Violence and Destruction,' he wrote, 'tells you all you have to know.' Insurrectionist mobs. Lawless riots. Videos of violence. We've heard such alarming descriptions before. And on January 6, 2021, we saw how little Trump cared about them. Share AT 1:21 P.M. THAT DAY, AS TRUMP returned to the White House after instructing his supporters to march on the Capitol, he was told twice by a member of his staff, 'They're rioting down at the Capitol.' The exact moment of this encounter was captured in a photograph. Trump replied, 'All right, let's go see.' He went to his dining room and watched on TV as the riot proceeded. For the next hour, TV networks aired videos of the violence and destruction. Like this week's videos from Los Angeles, they told the president all he needed to know. But Trump did nothing. Toward the end of that hour—somewhere between 2:13 and 2:24 pm, according to the final report of the House January 6th Committee—Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, informed White House Counsel Pat Cipollone that Trump 'doesn't want to do anything' about the ongoing assault. A few minutes later, Cipollone was heard to tell Meadows, 'They're literally calling for the Vice President to be F'ing hung.' And Meadows was heard to reply, 'You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike [Pence] deserves it. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong.' Meanwhile, in a phone call, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy warned Trump that the rioters 'literally just came through my office windows, and my staff are running for cover. I mean, they're running for their lives. You need to call them [the assailants] off.' Trump responded by rebuking McCarthy: 'Well, Kevin, I guess they're just more upset about the election theft than you are.' These conversations took place as Fox News, which Trump was watching, reported that police had been injured and that rioters inside the Capitol were 'feet from the House chamber.' On the screen, according to the House committee report, Fox 'was showing video of the chaos and attack, with tear gas filling the air in the Capitol Rotunda.' Throughout the afternoon, Trump's aides, family, and friends implored him to tell the rioters to go home. He refused. Not until 4:17 p.m., nearly three hours after being informed about the riot, did he comply. Join now TRUMP NOW CLAIMS that he told the rioters to be peaceful and that he offered ten thousand National Guard troops to protect the Capitol. The first claim is misleading. The second is a lie. The House report shows that before and during the assault, Trump resisted entreaties to call for peace. On January 6th, a text message to one of his top aides, Hope Hicks, said Trump 'should tweet something about Being NON-violent.' Hicks wrote back: 'I suggested it several times Monday and Tuesday and he refused.' At one point in his incendiary speech that morning, Trump did ask his followers to march to the Capitol 'peacefully.' But that phrase, according to the House report, was 'scripted for him by his White House speechwriters.' The main theme of the speech was to 'fight like hell.' Another Trump aide, Sarah Matthews, told the committee that once the riot was underway, Trump resisted pleas to call for peace. He did use the term 'peaceful' in a tweet at 2:38 p.m., but only grudgingly. Trump's press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, told Matthews that Trump 'did not want to include any sort of mention of peace in that tweet.' Trump's other January 6th story, about the National Guard, is also a sham. His acting defense secretary, his Army secretary, and his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff all testified that he never ordered the Guard to deploy that day. He never even spoke to these officials. Instead, during the riot, he used his phone to press members of Congress to do what the mob wanted: overturn the election. It's true that before the attack, Trump talked about the possibility of needing guardsmen. But it was never about protecting the Capitol. It was, in Meadows's words, to 'protect pro Trump people' from anti-Trump protesters. In short, everything Trump decries in Los Angeles happened on January 6th, and more. A violent, insurrectionist mob swarmed and attacked police. And instead of bringing in the Guard 'RIGHT NOW,' Trump watched the assault, encouraged the mob, and waited to see whether it would keep him in power. In fact, when he returned to office this year, Trump pardoned nearly everyone who had pleaded guilty to or had been convicted of assaulting police on January 6th. He said the insurrectionists were right: 'They were protesting a crooked election.' He purged the prosecutors who had handled those cases. And in a speech at the Department of Justice, he boasted that he had 'removed the senior FBI officials' who, in his words, had persecuted the 'J6 hostages.' Share NOW, AS HE DEPLOYS THE MILITARY against protesters in an American city, Trump invokes 'law and order' as a bogus excuse. And he vows to go further. On Monday, he announced a policy of escalation against protesters. 'If they spit, we will hit,' he wrote on Truth Social. 'This is a statement from the President of the United States. . . . The Insurrectionists have a tendency to spit in the face of the National Guardsmen/women, and others. . . . IF THEY SPIT, WE WILL HIT, and I promise you they will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before.' On Tuesday, speaking to troops at Fort Bragg, Trump said he was seizing control of the National Guard and ending the tradition of consulting governors. 'We will use every asset at our disposal to quell the violence and restore law and order right away,' he declared. 'We're not going to wait . . . for a governor that's never going to call.' And in remarks in the Oval Office, Trump said his policy of escalating state violence would apply to anyone who protests the military parade on June 14, his birthday. 'If there's any protester [who] wants to come out, they will be met with very big force,' he warned. 'For those people that want to protest. . . . They will be met with very heavy force.' This is not a man defending the rule of law. This is a man continuing the project he began in his first term and tried to complete on January 6th: replacing the rule of law with himself. Share The Bulwark
