Donald Trump vient de publier un Executive Order (ENFORCING COMMONSENSE RULES OF THE ROAD FOR AMERICA’S TRUCK DRIVERS)obigeant les chauffeurs de camions “to read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records.” Pourquoi pas les chauffeurs de taxi qui transportent des personnes ?
“Excellente initiative” qui dévrait être être généralisée à d’autres fonctions, celle de président des Etats-Unis par exemple. Ci-dessous un projet d’EO (rédigé avec l’aide de ChatGPT) imposant un niveau minimal d’anglais pour tout candidat à la présidence.
D’après chaque mesure et méthodologie testées, le vocabulaire et la structure grammaticale de Donald Trump sont nettement plus simples et moins diversifiés que ceux de n’importe quel président depuis Herbert Hoover, lorsqu’il s’agit de mesurer des mots “hors script”, c’est-à-dire des mots beaucoup moins susceptibles d’avoir été écrits à l’avance pour l’orateur”, a écrit Bill Frischling, PDG de Factba.se. “L’écart entre Trump et le prochain président le plus proche (…) est plus grand que tout autre écart selon Flesch-Kincaid. Statistiquement parlant, il existe un écart significatif.”
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
April 29, 2025
EXECUTIVE ORDER
Ensuring Linguistic Competence in Presidential Candidates
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended (52 U.S.C. § 30101 et seq.), it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Purpose.
The President of the United States holds a role requiring precise and responsible communication. In both domestic governance and international diplomacy, the use of clear, sophisticated, and coherent English is essential. The integrity of our democratic institutions depends upon the electorate’s ability to understand and assess the ideas and arguments presented by those who seek the highest office.
In contrast, public linguistic analyses—such as the 2018 Factba.se study—have revealed that President Donald J. Trump’s vocabulary ranked at a fourth-grade level under international standards. Subsequent discourse has only underscored this decline.
Examples include:
“That’s good.”
“That’s not good.”
“It’s beautiful. Very beautiful. Really beautiful.”
“The others cheat. It’s not fair.”
“The billions are coming. We’ll be super rich.”
“Thanks to me. I’m great. Like, really smart.”
“Everyone calls me to kiss my ass.”
“It’s not working. It’s his fault. He’s a big loser.”
“They’re mean. Really really mean. I’m not happy.”
“We’re going to be very nice. They’ll be very nice.”
Such language fails to meet the basic expectations of presidential discourse and undermines informed civic engagement.
Sec. 2. Policy.
It is the policy of this Administration to protect the dignity and intellectual seriousness of the Office of the President by ensuring that all candidates for that office demonstrate an adequate command of the English language, comparable to the standards already required of applicants for U.S. naturalization under Section 312 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. § 1423).
Sec. 3. English Proficiency Requirements for Presidential Candidates.
(a) Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Federal Election Commission (FEC), in consultation with the Department of Education and the National Assessment Governing Board (which oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress), shall develop and implement an English language assessment for all presidential candidates.
(b) This assessment shall evaluate candidates on vocabulary breadth, syntactic competence, rhetorical clarity, and the ability to construct policy arguments in written and spoken English.
(c) To qualify for inclusion on federal ballots, candidates must score at or above the 12th-grade level as defined by the NAEP reading and writing benchmarks, or at the B2 level on the CEFR scale.
(d) The FEC shall integrate this evaluation into the standard qualification process for presidential candidates, consistent with its responsibilities under the Federal Election Campaign Act.
Sec. 4. Enforcement and Remediation.
(a) A candidate failing to meet the linguistic standard shall be ineligible to appear on ballots for federal elections unless and until the standard is met.
(b) A candidate marginally below the threshold may request a six-month remedial period, during which publicly funded tutoring may be offered.
(c) The Department of Justice and the Office of Special Counsel may review ongoing speech patterns of sitting presidents for evidence of cognitive or linguistic decline impacting the public interest.
Sec. 5. General Provisions.
(a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to violate or modify the eligibility criteria set forth in Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order does not create any enforceable legal right or benefit, substantive or procedural, against the United States or its entities.
THE WHITE HOUSE,
April 29, 2025