Trump, Elon Musk bond over plastic straws

It looks like President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are bonding over their distaste for paper straws. 

Musk, the billionaire CEO of automaker Tesla and Trump’s head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has opined about paper straws and strawless lids in the past.

In 2022, for instance, he wrote on X, “Stop the war on straws!” Musk also called paper straws “the worst” in a more-recent August 2024 post on the social media platform. 

Paper straws and other alternatives to plastic straws have gained steam over the past 10 years or so because of concerns about the environment and plastic pollution. 

TRUMP TREASURY HEAD DEFENDS ELON MUSK’S DOGE DESPITE ‘SQUAWKING’ FROM CRITICS

Now, Trump has issued an executive order to “end the procurement and forced use of paper straws.”

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“We’re going back to plastic straws. These things don’t work. I’ve had a many times and 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. So we’re going back to plastic straws,” Trump said Monday as he signed the executive order.

Trump’s executive order came after he signaled late last week on Truth Social that he would issue one “ending the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t work.” 

“BACK TO PLASTIC!” he wrote. 

Trump’s announcement prompted Musk to praise Trump as the “Greatest President ever.”

During July of last year, the Biden administration pushed to sunset “federal procurement of single-use plastics from food service operations, events, and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035.” It cited an ongoing “plastic pollution crisis” as the reason behind that move and other efforts.

Straws, cups, forks, knives and spoons are some common single-use plastics used for food. 

‘BACK TO PLASTIC!’: TRUMP VOWS EXECUTIVE ORDER ENDING ‘RIDICULOUS’ PUSH FOR PAPER STRAWS

Prior to the Biden administration’s July 2024 efforts to phase single-use plastics out of the government’s operations, the Department of Interior had issued a 2022 order seeking to move away from single-use plastics on lands it managed by 2032 by working to “reduce the procurement, sale and distribution” of such products. 

Even as some studies found 90% of paper straws tested contained forever chemicals compared to 75% of plastic straws. 

The Interior Department’s actions were part of an executive order signed by Biden in December 2021.

Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.