Trump slams Biden over paper straws, declares mandate ‘is dead’

President Trump in an early Saturday post slammed former President Biden over what he called the previous administration's mandate against plastic straws.

"Crooked Joe’s MANDATE, 'NO PLASTIC STRAWS, ONLY PAPER,' IS DEAD!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Enjoy your next drink without a straw that disgustingly dissolves in your mouth!!!"

The post comes a day after Trump said he plans to sign an executive order promoting plastic straws, after Biden sought to phase out single-use plastics — including items for food service, events and packaging — from government operations by 2035.

That goal came just days ahead of the former president dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.

During his first campaign against Biden, Trump raised roughly $500,000 by selling reusable red plastic straws that were branded as an alternative to what he called "liberal paper straws." They were sold in a pack of 10 for $15 and engraved with the president's name.

The lucrative sale came after multiple cities moved to limit or ban single-use plastic straws. A slew of businesses, including McDonald’s and Starbucks, also moved to paper or plant-based straws. Environmentalists celebrated the move as human exposure to microplastics have been linked to brain development and reproductive development issues in animal studies. 

“I do think we have bigger problems than plastic straws,” Trump said in 2019, when asked about the bans. “You have a little straw, but what about the plates, the wrappers and everything else that are much bigger and they’re made of the same material?”

“Everybody focuses on the straws,” he added at the time. “There’s a lot of other things to focus, but it’s an interesting question.”

Paper straws, however, have also been found to contain cancer-linked "forever chemicals." Scientists detected perfluorinated and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) in the majority of straws they tested — with paper and bamboo-based straws ranking among the worst offenders, according to a study published last year in a study titled Food Additives and Contaminants.

Plastic is produced using oil and gas, and boosting the use of the material could be a win for Trump’s allies in the energy industry as well as the plastics industry. 

Rachel Frazin contributed.