The Trump administration is doubling down on its hardline approach to what it sees as major problems in the trucking industry.
During a speech in Pennsylvania Wednesday, Trump said that the federal government will remove what he called "illegal alien truck drivers" and replace them with military veterans.
Then, on Thursday, the Department of Transportation announced it was enlisting the aid of the Department of Hoimeland Security to "crack down on fraudulent and illegal practices in commercial driver’s license."
According to a report by The New Republic, Trump was speaking at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania when he said, "My administration will soon take historic action to get illegal alien truck drivers who are just killing a lot of people—they can’t read signs, a lot of them are on drugs or alcohol, and they shouldn’t be driving these things. They came in totally illegally and they—we don’t want ’em."
Instead, the goverment will train veterans to drive the trucks left empty by the removal of immigant drivers, going so far to say, "... any American who has driven a truck for our military will automatically be eligible for a commercial driver’s license."
Trump's comments echo ones he made in the early days of his second administration when he issued an executive order declaring English as the official language of the U.S. Another executive order renewed a requirement that truck drivers must be proficient enough in English to answer questions during a traffic stop or inspection, and read highway signs.
The president's comments also come as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration continues efforts to remove foreign born drivers who may have obtained a CDL fraudulently or because of a state's lax process for issuing non-domiciled CDLs.
The FMCSA has also undertaken an audit of all CDL schools to remove ones that have issued fraudulent credentials.
To augment that effort, the Transportation Department Thursday announced it was enlisting the aid of the Department of Homeland, which includes the controversial Immigration Customs Enforcement -- ICE -- agency.
A statement from the DOT said Homeland Security would aid in the "crack down on fraudulent and illegal practices in commercial driver’s license schools."
The DOT's statement said the FMCSA has identified about 75 entry-level driving training schools suspected of fraudulent activities, including using improper driver certifications, falsifying training records, and failing to properly train drivers applying for CDLs, among other violations. USDOT will use DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations to examine these schools.
“USDOT has spent the last year rooting out bad actors from our trucking industry,” said Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “We've knocked over 24,000 drivers off our roads for failing to speak English, forced states to cancel over 28,000 licenses illegally issued to foreign drivers, and purged over 9,500 unqualified training schools from our FMCSA registry. DHS will be a force multiplier of our efforts to clean up America's roads. President Trump is using every lever at his disposal to ensure the safety of American families.”
Recently appointed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said,“Too many American lives have been lost in completely avoidable accidents because illegal aliens have been granted commercial driver’s licenses to drive trucks and 18-wheelers on America’s roadways. DHS law enforcement is partnering with the Department of Transportation to eliminate CDL fraud, strengthen the integrity of the CDL system, and investigate commercial driver’s license schools throughout the country."
In December 2025, USDOT announced the removal of CDL training providers from the FMCSA’s Training Provider Registry for failing to equip trainees with the required standards of readiness. As of today, nearly 10,000 schools have been removed.
In February 2026, USDOT announced that more than 550 sham CDL training schools found in violation of the FMCSA’s standards of safety received notices of proposed removal from FMCSA’s national training provider registry.
