“We have taken over 2,000 fraudulent CDL mills out of business,” Vance said.
The vice president argued that the crackdown is about more than paperwork and licensing rules. He said the administration’s efforts are designed to make American roads safer while protecting American truckers from competition involving improperly licensed drivers.
Vance specifically blamed policies under the previous administration for allowing unqualified immigrants to obtain commercial driving credentials.
According to Vance, the Trump administration has been working to identify fraudulent licensing operations and remove improperly credentialed drivers from the nation’s roads.
He also pointed to what he described as an increase in trucker compensation.
“We’ve made the roads safer, we’ve seen trucker wages go up by 7.5 percent,” Vance said.
Vance did not provide additional details during the briefing about the specific time period or wage measurement behind the 7.5 percent figure.
Still, he credited the administration’s anti-fraud efforts with uncovering operations in which individuals allegedly obtained commercial licenses or related credentials through dishonest means.
The vice president then turned to an issue much closer to home: the devastating 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Before joining the Trump administration as vice president, Vance represented Ohio in the United States Senate. During his time in Congress, he became one of the most vocal critics of the federal response to the disaster.
The Norfolk Southern train derailed on February 3, 2023, near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border while transporting hazardous materials.
Days later, officials carried out a controlled vent-and-burn operation involving vinyl chloride from several tank cars. Authorities said the action was taken because of concerns that the damaged cars could explode.
The decision became one of the most controversial aspects of the disaster.
The operation sent a large plume into the sky above the surrounding community, leaving residents deeply concerned about potential contamination and long-term health consequences.
The National Transportation Safety Board later determined that the vent-and-burn operation was unnecessary and exposed residents and emergency responders to additional hazards.
Now, Vance wants another look at how the Biden administration handled the crisis.
On August 28, Vance and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin formally requested that the EPA’s Office of Inspector General launch an independent investigation into the federal government’s response.
During Thursday’s briefing, Vance said information that has emerged in recent months has reinforced concerns he had expressed years earlier.
“What we’ve learned over the last couple of months is something that I suspected but frankly could never prove,” Vance said.
Vance suggested that officials under the Biden administration may have failed to fully account for the potential risks facing residents.
But the vice president stopped short of declaring the allegations proven. Instead, he said investigators should determine whether government officials withheld information, made serious mistakes or deliberately misled the public.
Those questions are now among the issues the inspector general could potentially examine.
The investigation request comes after the release of documents indicating that government officials had access to modeling concerning possible hazardous exposure from the chemical plume.
Vance and Zeldin are asking investigators to examine the conduct of federal and state officials as well as private entities involved in the response.
The central question is straightforward: Were the people of East Palestine given the protection and information they deserved?
The derailment has already resulted in years of legal and political fallout.
In 2024, Norfolk Southern agreed to a $600 million class-action settlement involving residents and businesses affected by the derailment. The railroad denied wrongdoing as part of the agreement.
Yet the settlement did little to end broader questions surrounding the disaster.
Residents have continued to raise concerns about health effects, environmental contamination, monitoring efforts and whether officials provided the public with complete information during the crisis.
Vance was also asked whether the Trump administration could declare an emergency to provide additional assistance to East Palestine residents.
He did not make a firm commitment.
“I wouldn’t want to commit to something unless I would know that it would do some good,” Vance said, adding that he would consider the idea.
Beyond the substance of Thursday’s briefing, Vance’s appearance underscored an unusual transition inside the Trump White House.
Leavitt completed her final day as press secretary on August 27. She announced that she wanted to devote more time to her two young children.
For now, there is no permanent replacement publicly announced.
That has created an unusual arrangement in which prominent administration officials can find themselves taking turns at the briefing-room podium.
Vance’s surprise appearance demonstrated that the administration is not allowing the vacancy to slow its message.
Instead, the vice president used the opportunity to promote the White House’s trucking crackdown, defend the administration’s public-safety agenda and reopen scrutiny of one of the most controversial environmental disasters of the Biden era.
With Trump still considering who will ultimately take over the press secretary’s job, Americans may see more familiar administration faces behind the podium in the days ahead.
