Death of the American Trucker
Will automated trucking be Trump’s greatest betrayal of his blue-collar base?
When Donald Trump sidles up to a semi truck, he’s usually selling policy only a plutocrat could love. Campaigning to repeal the Affordable Care Act in March, Trump pinned an iTrucks button to his lapel and honked the horn of a Mack truck outside the White House. “Obamacare,” he said, “has inflicted great pain on American truckers.” In October, at a rally before the “proud men and women of the American Trucking Associations” in Pennsylvania, Trump touted GOP plans to slash corporate taxes by 40 percent and to end “the crushing, horrible and unfair estate tax.” Behind him, positioned for the TV cameras, was an 18-wheeler — emblazoned with an unlikely slogan: truckers for tax reform. He vowed his America First agenda “means putting American truckers first.”
In his stagecraft, Trump puts truckers on a pedestal. Behind the scenes, his administration is seeking to hasten a revolution in robotic driving that poses an existential threat to their livelihoods. We’re at the dawn of the self-driving truck. The technology will benefit most Americans: Ever-alert robotic semis promise safer highways, reduced emissions, faster ship times and, for the 70 percent of goods that travel by truck, lower costs. Yet this…
