Trump Makes Trucker Shortage Worse With Racist New Policy

Truckers in America are already being laid off thanks to a shortage of goods coming into the country due to Trump’s trade war. And now the shortage of truckers could become even worse because of a blatantly racist new policy from the Trump administration. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced this week that they are going to be performing “roadside English proficiency tests” for truck drivers in America, and if they don’t pass then they are suspended. This has nothing to do with safety or an actual problem, it is all about racism, as Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Due to the, uh, newfound shortage of ships coming into the United States, bringing goods from foreign countries, uh, we have seen mass layoffs in the trucking industry. And those who remain have reported that they're getting less work than before because there's not as many things to ship around the country. And then this week, the Trump administration came along and said, you know what? Let's make this trucker shortage even worse. By being exceptionally racist, Donald Trump had signed an executive order way back in April. In fact, it was on April 28th. And that executive order essentially directed the US Department of Transportation under transportation, secretary Sean Duffy, to get rid of truck drivers across the country who don't speak English good enough, not people who don't speak English at all, but if they're not proficient in English to our satisfaction, then they can't drive on our roads anymore, even though they passed their trucker exam, they have the class of driver's license that they need. So obviously they were able to take the exam, they were able to pass it. They have been driving on these roads for years with no incidents. But Sean Duffy announced this week that we're gonna start performing roadside proficiency tests, and if they don't pass, they're off the road. He said, we are issuing guidance that ensures a driver who cannot understand English will not drive a vehicle in this country, period. Full stop.

So we're gonna make the trucker shortage even worse because we just want to be super racist against these people who, again, have passed the exam. They were able to obtain the type of license needed. They went through the training, they are qualified, but you know what? They may not know English so well. They know it well enough to be able to travel on our roads. Okay, that's not an issue. They can read speed limit signs, stop signs. They know what traffic lights mean. They know what the roadside, uh, signs mean because again, that's all in the exam. They know these things. They can read the exits where they're going. They know who has the right of way in a particular situation. So this isn't about safety. I don't want anybody out there saying, but feared if they can't, if they can't read, no, they can because they passed the exam. We know that they know what they need to know to be able to drive on our roads. And for the record, the trucking industry loves this. They love it. They think this is great. Hell yeah. Okay, well, you know, let's see. The farmers across America also loved it when Trump came into office

And now they're the ones crying the hardest about how much he screwed them over. So let's see if we end up with another situation like that, because I'll bet everything that we will, because, let me put it this way, proficient in English is a subjective phrase. There may be some people out there who think that I'm not proficient enough in English because I mispronounce words. Uh, oh. Well, luckily, I, I'm, I'm not driving a truck, so I don't have to worry. But lemme put it this way. I, I've actually, throughout my life, known quite a few truck drivers. Most of them, you know, you can carry on a conversation, no problem. But, but some of them down here in the deep south, which is where I live, um, born and raised in the United States, of course, they've never stepped foot outta the country. Nobody in their family has stepped foot outta the country for, you know, eight generations. Um, you can't understand a word that those people are saying. You know, these big white southern guys born and raised in the back woods driving a truck, God love 'em.