President Trump on Friday joked that White House staff will have to change out lightbulbs in a few rooms because the new bulb “gives you an orange look.”
“The new bulb is many times more expensive, and, I hate to say it, it doesn’t make you look as good,” Trump said during a White House meeting focused on deregulation efforts.
“Of course, being a vain person that’s very important to me,” he added, prompting laughter in the room. “It gives you an orange look. I don’t want an orange look. Has anyone noticed that?”
“So we’ll have to change those bulbs out at least a couple of rooms where I am in the White House,” Trump quipped.
The president has made similar remarks before in needling an Obama-era rule that imposed energy efficiency standards on lightbulbs.
Trump joked during a House Republican retreat in September that the products make him look orange. He quipped days before that during a campaign rally in North Carolina that he feels he looks better under incandescent lights.
The Trump administration in September finalized the reversal of the Obama administration’s efficiency standards on light bulbs. The new rule will eliminate the energy efficiency standards for half the bulbs on the market, which critics say will hasten the effects of climate change by increasing U.S. energy usage.
The president on Friday also said he would urge the Environmental Protection Agency to look at water efficiency standards after he complained about a lack of water pressure from sinks, showers and toilets.
“We have a situation where we’re looking very strongly at sinks and showers, and other elements of bathrooms,” Trump said in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.
“You turn the faucet on in areas where there’s tremendous amounts of water … and you don’t get any water,” he continued. “They take a shower and water comes dripping out. Just dripping out, very quietly dripping out.
“People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once,” he added. “They end up using more water.”
It’s unclear if Trump would push for a new rule deregulating water standards for certain household appliances.
The Department of Energy indicated last month that it would announce by May 2020 plans to allow faster-cleaning dishwashers to duck current energy efficiency standards, a move critics say defeats years of progress on making the appliances energy efficient.