When asked about the legislation he’d like passed this year, President Donald Trump bypassed voter priorities like the economy, health care, and immigration — and instead launched into a head-scratching riff about straws and sinks.
“For 2026, especially in a midterm election year, what is your goal for Congress in terms of getting your agenda through?” NewsNation host Katie Pavlich asked the Republican president on Tuesday, the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. “What is on the agenda? What expectations do you have for Congress?”
“Well, one of the things I’d like to do — you know, we passed so many executive orders,” Trump said. “I have great executive orders and they’re really common sense and good. I mean, like water coming out of a sink. The water wouldn’t come out. They had all sorts of ridiculous restrictions. I took all of that off. Coming out of the showerhead, you’d stand under a shower, there’s no water coming out. So I passed so many things like that.”
He seemed to be referencing his April executive order, which targeted his predecessor’s “war on showers” by deregulating showerhead water pressure.
The 79-year-old president then touched on a subject that has long been important to him: “Straws.”
“They don’t have to be paper anymore,” Trump continued. “They don’t have to melt in your mouth. So I passed so many different things like that, and much more important things, but like that. They’re important, they’re quality of life, and I’d like to have all of that confirmed by Congress if we can, and we’ve done a lot of it. We’ve done probably 35, 40 percent. I’d like to get them all confirmed. Every one of them.”
In February, Trump issued an executive order targeting paper straw mandates, aiming to lift restrictions and permit the use of plastic alternatives. He had previously brought up straws on the campaign trail, claiming Democrats wanted to ban plastic straws.
The president’s interview came the same day he delivered a marathon 104-minute press conference on his accomplishments from his first year, during which he appeared to veer off script.
At one point he delivered a lengthy anecdote about his mother, little league baseball and insane asylums. He also revealed that he wanted to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of Trump.”
His latest pronouncements have left some — even his former staffers — questioning his mental fitness.
“This presser is bizarre even for him,” Stephanie Grisham, who briefly served as Trump’s White House press secretary during his first term, wrote on X yesterday. “It’s all the usual rambling, off-topic tales, half-truths, lies…but it’s low-energy & feels like he’s…mentally slipping. Congress-plz wake up.”
The same day, Sarah Matthews, a former Trump White House deputy press secretary, questioned the president’s mental state over his recent effort to acquire Greenland, potentially through force, which has alarmed America’s NATO allies.
“I don’t say this lightly,” Matthews told MS NOW. “I think this might be the most mentally ill, deranged thing that Donald Trump has done to date, to be threatening our allies and wanting to go to war, potentially over Greenland, when his reasoning doesn’t even make sense.”
Others have pointed out that Trump — the oldest person ever inaugurated president — has recently appeared to doze off in meetings.
Trump, though, has vigorously defended his mental faculties. Earlier this month he told reporters, “I’m sharper than I was 25 years ago,” and has often boasted of acing cognitive exams. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, he also said his health is “perfect” and that he has “very good genetics.”
Meanwhile, voter concerns about the president’s age have grown. In February 2024, just 34 percent of Americans said Trump is “too old to be president,” according to a YouGov survey. In September, 49 percent said the same, outstripping the 39 percent who said he is “not too old.”
