Trump aims to 'make America's showers great again' with order targeting water flow

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump signed another executive order Wednesday, targeting water pressure to "make America’s showers great again."

What is in the executive order?

What you can do:

In his order, Trump said he's redefining "showerhead" as previous administrations used a mutli-word, complicated definition to regulate water pressure. 

"Twice in the last 12 years, those administrations put out massive regulations defining the word ‘showerhead,’" the order reads. "The Biden definition was a staggering 13,000 words. The Oxford English Dictionary, by contrast, defines ‘showerhead’ in one short sentence."

The president now wants to reduce the definition of showerhead that stems "from the 1992 energy law, which sets a simple 2.5-gallons-per-minute standard for showers."

What would the executive order do?

Why you should care:

Trump said with his new executive order, the showerhead will no longer be "weak and worthless" and the water pressure could increase.

However, increased water pressure could lead to a higher utility bill for households. 

According to HomeGuide, the average water bill in the U.S. per month is $49. 

What they're saying:

"We’re going to get rid of those restrictions," Trump said in the order. "You have many places where they have water, they have so much water they don’t know what to do with it. 

"But people buy a house, they turn on the sink, and water barely comes out. They take a shower, water barely comes out. And it’s an unnecessary restriction."

"President Trump is slashing red tape and ending Biden’s dumb war on things that work," the order added.

The other side:

For over three decades, federal energy law has outlined appliance standards that determine new showerheads shouldn’t pour out more than 2.5 gallons of water per minute. The Obama administration refined the restrictions and applied those limits to the water that comes out of the entire showerhead, even ones with several nozzles.

During the first Trump administration, the president relaxed that to allow each nozzle of a showerhead to spray as much as 2.5 gallons.

The Biden administration reversed Trump’s action in 2021.

The backstory:

Trump once expressed concern about how low showerhead flow affected his "perfect" hair. Now back in the White House, he’s again taking aim at some high-efficiency household items — and that may mean higher water and electric bills in your home.

(Photo by ROMAIN COSTASECA/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)

For the president, it’s personal. Trump has long been distressed by the water flow — or apparent lack thereof — from showerheads, saying during his first stint in the White House that he wasn’t getting wet enough in the shower and that his hair needed to be "perfect." Trump has also incorrectly claimed before that people weren’t getting any water out of their fixtures and had to flush their toilets 10 or 15 times.

Trump is following the lead of humorist Dave Barry who complained in 1997 about having "to lurk in the bathroom for what seems like several presidential administrations flushing, checking, waiting, flushing, checking."

What's next:

Other appliances and devices at risk under Trump are dishwashers, washing machines and more, the efficiency of which was boosted through rules under the previous administration and others.