“We’re going to ensure that our truckers, who are the backbone of our economy, are all able to speak English. That’s a very common sense policy.”
President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order requiring truck drivers to pass English literacy tests, a move aimed at improving road safety, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Monday.
“This is a big problem in the trucking community,” Leavitt said, citing communication issues between drivers and officials as a “public safety risk.” She added, “We’re going to ensure that our truckers, who are the backbone of our economy, are all able to speak English. That’s a very common sense policy.”
The order directs the Department of Transportation to implement the tests. It follows a rise in foreign-born truckers, attributed to refugee initiatives under the Biden-Harris administration.
Trump, who previously praised truckers during the COVID-19 pandemic, recently declared English the official U.S. language in another executive order.
“A nationally designated language is at the core of a unified and cohesive society,” Trump stated in March.