Dear Trump, Make This Our National Vehicle
The pickup truck is woven into our national history, but it is also a symbol of America’s cultural power and dominance throughout the world
Welcome back to Mr. Right, a newsletter about navigating modern manhood for normal guys in a not-normal world.
This week, I celebrate pure vehicular Americana: the pickup truck. And, I argue that President Trump or Congress should declare or legislate the pickup as our national vehicle to honor the 250th anniversary of the United States of America.
Dear Trump, Make This Our National Vehicle
Factory-assembled pickups have a storied history and were born in what is now considered the “Rust Belt.” In 1902, the pioneering Rapid Motor Vehicle Company built the first one-ton commercial trucks in Pontiac, Michigan. About a decade later, the Galion Allsteel Body Company installed big hauling boxes on the backs of modified Ford Model T’s. Dodge would introduce a cab and pickup made entirely of wood in 1924, before Ford created a steel-bodied vehicle based on the Model T with a bed in the back and an adjustable tailgate. From there, it was off to the races.
In hindsight, it might seem obvious that the early motor companies should have designed a pickup truck. But consider this: it wasn’t until the 1970s that someone thought to put wheels on the bottom of luggage, even though wheels are some of the oldest technology known to man. Pickups were not obvious to the men who first made them, so their vision and creative genius should be appreciated and celebrated.
It’s not just about the men who invented pickups, though; it’s also about how Americans used them throughout the 20th century. Farmers, loggers, steel workers, miners, carpenters, contractors, plumbers, painters, roofers, landscapers, powerline technicians – all these men drove pickup trucks. During the Super Bowl this year, we will watch truck commercials that remind us of these vehicles’ role in America’s booming years. But it isn’t a marketing gimmick: pickups, and the men who steered them and hauled tools, lumber, and crops in their beds, built and maintained this country for over a century.
Symbolically, the pickup truck is central to American identity. It represents our toughness and thirst for adventure, our pragmatic, enterprising approach to life, and our frontier romanticism. How many entrepreneurs started with nothing but dreams, a power washer, and a Chevrolet? How many fathers taught their sons to drive the dented, rusted GMC on the family farm? How many lovers laid out a blanket in the bed of a Ford to stargaze in the plains of East Texas?
The pickup truck is woven into our national history, but it is also a symbol of America’s cultural power and dominance throughout the world. Every tradesman in coastal Italian towns drives a pickup – albeit a much smaller one than we Americans are accustomed to – as do sheep farmers in New Zealand. Pickups are so reliable, durable, and practical that even our Islamic terrorist enemies cannot resist their allure.
Beyond this symbolism, trucks are enjoyable to drive, serving equally well for work, home projects, or even family road trips. Fewer Americans may use them for dirty jobs in rough terrain, but they’re still glad to have pickups for trips to and from Home Depot and storing surfboards, Yeti Coolers, golf clubs, or anything else they can cram in the back. Today, trucks might be decked out with too many needless bells and whistles, but they’re still – and always will be – handy.
Our nostalgia for old Americana has never been more potent than it is in 2026. In the age of social media and smartphones, we all feel trapped inside the eternal now. The digital world moves so fast. Seductive and addictive, it yanks us all out of the real world. Sometimes, we seem to be suffering from collective amnesia. Rich history seems to be fading into the past, and we are all too fixated on screens to care much.
So, what better way to relieve the twinge in our hearts, remember an important American invention and contribution to the world, and honor our country on her historic 250th anniversary than to designate the pickup truck our national vehicle?
A cowboy H/T to Timothy Nerozzi, a baller and former Caller, whose Washington Post op-ed on why cowboy hats should be our national dress inspired this newsletter edition.
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