President Donald Trump added to his growing list of small but meaningful executive orders on Wednesday by repealing a ruling by past Democrat presidents that had restricted water flow from showerheads.
In 2021, the Department of Energy under former President Joe Biden reversed a Trump-era rule that had dialed back water efficiency standards for showerheads, which both the Biden and Obama administrations had set at 2.5 gallon per-minute maximum flow. On Wednesday in the Oval Office, Trump rescinded the Biden-era standards and shared personal anecdotes as to the collective frustrations Americans feel with ever weakening water pressure.
"In my case, I like to take a nice shower, to take care of my beautiful hair," Trump told reporters. "I have to stand under the shower for 15 minutes till it gets wet. It comes out drip, drip, drip. It's ridiculous."
The White House didn't waste an opportunity to troll the previous administration by calling out how much legalese was used to define a common household item. "The Biden definition was a staggering 13,000 words. The Oxford English Dictionary, by contrast, defines "showerhead" in one short sentence," the order read.
The order blasted the efforts by the Obama and Biden administrations to target everyday utilities such as gas stoves, water heaters, washing machines, furnaces, and dishwashers noting that his administration will aim to end "Biden's dumb war on things that work."
The president has often viewed his hair as a key talking point when making his case about government over-reach. "I take a shower, I want that beautiful head of hair to be just lathered," Trump said at a Turning Point Action event in Detroit in June 2024. "I want it to be lathered beautifully. And I get the 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."