Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order lifting water-pressure restrictions on showerheads, a move the White House said would “make America’s showers great again”. Trump has long complained about inadequate water pressure in American bathrooms, which he blames on federal water-conservation regulations.
“In my case, I like to take a nice shower, to take care of my beautiful hair,” Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “I have to stand under the shower for 15 minutes till it gets wet. It comes out drip, drip, drip. It’s ridiculous.” The order directs the Energy Department to roll back “radical green” regulations limiting the flow of showerheads to 2.5 gallons of water per minute. The White House said the order “frees Americans from excessive regulations that turned a basic household item into a bureaucratic nightmare” and ends the “Obama-Biden war on showers”.
Trump has targeted water-pressure standards for showerheads, toilets, dishwashers, and other household appliances since his first term. “My hair, I don’t know about you, but it has to be perfect, perfect,” he said outside the White House in 2020. “I take a shower, I want that beautiful head of hair to be just lathered,” Trump said in Detroit in June 2024. “I get this best stuff you can buy and I dump it all over. And then I turn on the water and the damn water drips out. I can’t get the stuff out of my hair. It’s a horrible thing.”
But according to the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, “shower head standards save consumers money on their water and energy bills and help the environment.” “Testing has repeatedly shown that today’s models can provide an excellent shower,” the NGO said in a 2024 report.
© 2024 AFP
