President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting the “irrational campaign against plastic straws,” sidestepping action addressing other single-use plastics.
The narrow order declares an end to the federal government procuring or using paper straws in agency buildings. It also tasks the Council for National Policy with drafting a new strategy to eliminate policies “designed to disfavor plastic straws” in the next 45 days.
“We’re going back to plastic,” Trump said before signing the executive order Monday evening. “These things don’t work. I’ve had them many times. On occasion they break, they explode, if something’s hot, they don’t last very long, like a matter of minutes, sometimes a matter of seconds. It’s a ridiculous situation.”
The “National Strategy to End the Use of Paper Straws,” as titled in the order, would go beyond Biden-era policies by directing one of the president’s domestic policy assistants to “contract policies and terms with entities, including States, that ban or penalize plastic straw purchase or use.”
