Trump plans drastic action to improve showers and light bulbs as he lays out sweeping energy plans

Donald Trump’s gush of executive orders during his first hours to bring about a new ‘Golden Age of America’ will roll back a host of liberal regulations – including one that limits the flow of water to shower heads.

Trump plans to sign an executive order on ‘Unleashing American Energy’ – and it will target regulations that conservatives have blasted that limit water usage in dishwashers and showers, according to White House officials.

It is among a skein of 100 orders Trump is planning to try to suddenly shift policy and signal a new era and deregulation, even as he tries to kick start plans for mass deportations and big ticket items he campaigned on.

It’s not a trifling issue for Trump, who has complained about water pressure issues in public repeatedly for years – including at a January press conference at Mar-a-Lago just days before he was set to take office.

‘When you buy a faucet, no water comes out. Even in areas with so much water you don’t know what to do. It’s called rain. It comes down from heaven. And they want to do no water comes out of the shower. It goes drip, drip, drip … So what happens? You’re in the shower ten times as long.’

As Trump’s team put it, the orders will end efforts to ‘curtail consumer choice’ relating to dishwashers, gas stoves, and shower heads. Federal regulations set a maximum flow rate of 2.5 gallons per minute for shower heads.

There are detailed government regulations published in the Federal Register describing terms such as ‘shower head’, ‘body spray, and and ‘safety shower showerhead’.

Trump’s administration put them in place in December 2020, just weeks before leaving office, after complaining months earlier about his need for high water pressure to make his hair ‘perfect.’ 

In 2021, the Biden administration reversed a Trump-era rule that boosted the flow of water that could go through shower heads. 

Trump had complained at the White House: ‘So what do you do? You just stand there longer or you take a shower longer? Because my hair – I don’t know about you – but it has to be perfect.’ 

Another order will declare a ‘national energy emergency’ in Alaska. ‘We need an abundance of American energy here at home with that greater production,’ a White House official told reporters. The U.S. leads the world in crude oil production, but the official said the high costs were ‘unacceptable.’ High energy costs drive up the costs of an array of consumer goods.

At the same time, he is rolling back what he calls the ‘electric vehicle mandate’ – government incentives meant to boost purchases of electric cars. 

Some of Trump’s policy moves require just the stroke of a pen. Others will require a long regulatory process.

The orders come after Trump declared at his indoor inauguration that ‘the Golden Age of America begins right now’ and said he was ‘saved by God to make America Great Again,’ while blasting a ‘radical and corrupt establishment.’

He said there would be a ‘restoration’ of America in what he called a ‘revolution of common sense.’ 

‘We will drill, baby, drill,’ Trump said in his inaugural speech after touting his energy plans.