Donald Trump’s Return to the Oval Office Means He Can Focus on His Weird Obsession: Making Showerheads and Toilets Great Again

Earlier this week, Donald Trump broke the record for the number of executive orders signed by a president on day one. Some of the actions were expected because they had been signaled as priorities by Trump, such as delaying the enforcement of the TikTok ban and declaring a national emergency at the southern border.

But those weren’t the president’s only priorities. Buried in the more than two dozen executive orders signed by Trump was one that addressed an issue he’s been obsessed with for years: showerheads and toilets.

For Trump, everything is personal. The president started talking about making showerheads, sinks, dishwashers, and toilets great again during his first term. In his eyes, these plumbing fixtures were a disgrace. Showerheads, in particular, were negatively affecting his “perfect” hair.

“You turn on the shower–if you’re like me, you can’t wash your beautiful hair properly,” Trump said in 2020, according to CNN. “‘Please come out,’ The water–it drips, right?”

It wasn’t the first time Trump had complained about the water flow rate in bathroom plumbing fixtures. Back in 2019, he mentioned at a White House roundtable that his administration was looking into the situation, suggesting that there were some people “flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once.”

In essence, what Trump doesn't like are federal efficiency standards, which are designed so appliances and fixtures use less water and energy. Though these standards can create more expensive products, they push down water and electric bills.

Is the White House to blame? When Trump started lambasting showerheads and toilets, many tried to dig into why exactly he was suddenly obsessed with bathroom fixtures that didn’t appear to work correctly. After all, there was no widespread outcry about the water flow rate across the country.

One theory that turned up was the White House itself. The 55,000-square-foot building—which once burned down and has been rebuilt and remodeled over the years—is centuries old. Throughout the years, pipes have been displaced, and bathrooms have been added. As such, it makes complete sense that not everything in the building spews water like a fire hose.

The freedom to drown in your shower. In his first term, Trump ultimately succeeded in easing restrictions to allow each nozzle of new showerheads to release 2.5 gallons of water per minute. Previously, showerheads could only use 2.5 gallons of water per minute despite how many nozzles they had.

At the time, energy conversation experts told the Associated Press that more was not always better.

Say you have a showerhead with four or five nozzles, “you could have 10, 15 gallons per minute powering out of the showerhead, literally probably washing you out of the bathroom,” Andrew deLaski, the executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, an energy conservation group, said.

Former President Joe Biden reversed Trump’s actions on water flow rate when he took office.

The executive order. On Monday, it became clear that showerheads and toilets were once again poised to become part of the national conversation. To be clear, Trump didn’t sign an entire executive order about showerheads and toilets.

The order, titled Unleashing American Energy, aimed to dismantle key aspects of Biden’s clean energy and electric vehicle initiatives. For example, it instructed the government to restart application reviews for liquefied natural gas and eliminated the EV mandate, which set a goal for 50% of U.S. car sales to be electric by 2030.

Here’s what it said about the showerheads and toilets:

“It is the policy of the United States to safeguard the American people’s freedom to choose from a variety of goods and appliances, including but not limited to lightbulbs, dishwashers, washing machines, gas stoves, water heaters, toilets, and shower heads, and to promote market competition and innovation within the manufacturing and appliance industries.”

Does anyone besides Trump care? Industry groups and the private sector will likely look favorably on Trump’s initiative. Thomas Houlie, a climate policy analyst, pointed out that these groups in general see energy efficiency initiatives as “more constraints on them.”

“They tend to overlook the benefits that will be gained from the measures,” he said.

However, making showerheads and toilets great again won’t be as easy as it sounds. The federal law that applies to this case doesn’t allow any standard to be weaker than a previous one, which means that the Trump administration will have to get creative when instituting loopholes.

Even if it does pull it off, there’s no guarantee manufacturers will even care. DeLaski, of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, told the Associated Press that to his knowledge, no manufacturer took advantage of Trump’s increased water flow allowance during his first term.

That doesn’t mean Trump won’t claim victory. No matter what happens, though, DeLaski hit the nail on what most of us are thinking: “to see toilets and shower heads on the list of presidential priorities is striking.”

Images | Xataka On | MossAlbatross (Wikimedia Commons)

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