Remarks by President Trump Celebrating America’s Truckers
whitehouse.gov | April 16, 2020
South Lawn of the White House

THE PRESIDENT:  At a time of widespread shutdowns, truck drivers form the lifeblood of our economy — and the absolute lifeblood.  For days, and sometimes weeks on end, truck drivers leave their homes and deliver supplies that American families need and count on during this national crisis and at all other times.  They’re always there.  Their routes connect every farm, hospital, manufacturer, business, and community in the country.
In the war against the virus, American truckers are the foot soldiers who are really carrying us to victory.  And they are.  They’ve done an incredible job.  We’ve had no problems.  It’s been just — it’s been just great, and we want to thank you very much. 

To every trucker listening over the radio or behind the wheel, I know I speak for the 330 million-plus Americans that we say: Thank God for truckers.  That’ll be our theme: Thank God for truckers.

From the moment the invisible enemy landed on our shores, America’s 3.5 million truckers have never wavered at all, and they’ve never, ever let us down.  When we supply our country, we supply it through truckers.  And supply chains were stretched thin to hospitals and cities and states needed — they needed massive convoys of supplies that truckers kept on going, day and night.  It didn’t make any difference to them.  They had to get the job done.

With us today is Charlton Paul, a driver with UPS Freight from New York, and a leader in the Teamsters Local 707.  I know the Teamsters well.  I’ve had many a concrete truck in New York delivering to my buildings as I was building them.

Truckers move over 70 percent of all freight in the United States, over 10 million tons every single year.  Truckers keep our economy running.  And now, in this time of national need, they’re saving lives.

And we’re also working — I think they’ll be happy to know, because they know the roads better than anybody — we’re working very strongly on an infrastructure package.  And if we could get some Democrat support, we’re going to have a tremendous — you’re going to have nice roads again.  Nice, beautiful roads again.  A $2 trillion — potentially, a 2-trillion-dollar package.

We eased regulation so that the truckers could be free to drive more hours and to transport emergency relief supplies, including masks, and gloves, and gowns, and groceries.  We worked with states to lift burdensome restrictions and ensure that all states’ rest areas remain open to support these hardworking men and women on the road.

And we also declared that our talented workers at private truck stops are essential employees.  They are indeed.  I don’t know if you know that. 

Did you know we call you all as “essential”?  There’s very few people called “essential.”  I don’t know if they call me essential.  I’m not sure about that.  But you’re essential, that I can tell you.