Donald Trump to sign executive order ending federal support for paper straws

The beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term has been marked by a flurry of executive orders aimed at fundamentally reshaping the government, America’s place on the global stage and the day-to-day lives of people in the country.

Trump had signed more than 50 executive orders as of Friday, the most in a president’s first 100 days in more than 40 years.

One of the orders that Trump is set to sign is the end of federal support for paper straws, a Biden-era policy that was part of a broader plan to end federal reliance on single-use plastics.

“I will be signing an executive order next week ending the ridiculous Biden push for paper straws, which don’t work. BACK TO PLASTIC!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday morning.

Biden had announced a target to eliminate single-use plastic utensils like drinking straws by 2035 across government agencies.

The trend for paper drinking straws has long irritated Trump.

“They want to ban straws. Has anyone tried those paper straws? They’re not working too good,” he said during a campaign rally in the 2020 election against Biden.

“It disintegrates as you drink it, and if you have a nice tie like this tie, you’ve got no choice.”

Trump’s campaign team previously sold branded plastic straws with the slogan: “Liberal paper straws don’t work.”

The president, who calls climate change a scam, has also often targeted electric vehicles despite his close alliance with Tesla chief Elon Musk.

On Thursday, the Trump administration sought to block funding for a network of electric-vehicle charging stations across the country, sparking fury from environmentalists.

Halting rollout of the $US5 billion national EV charging network would be a major setback to efforts to cut climate-changing emissions, according to green campaigners.

“His administration’s move to block funding for a bipartisan effort to build out our national EV charging network is a blatant, illegal power grab,” the Evergreen Action group said.

“This program is delivering real benefits to all 50 states — creating jobs, boosting economic opportunities, and cutting pollution.”

The other orders which Trump has signed off on since taking office range from tariffs on Mexico, China and Canada, to pauses on foreign aid and crackdowns on illegal immigration to bans on transgender people serving in the military and the use of federal funds for gender-affirming medical care for minors.