US has 'bigger problems' than plastic straws, says Trump
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President Donald Trump made his position clear to reporters at the White House when, between questions about Iran and China, one asked him about growing efforts to ban plastic straws.
PHOTO: AFP
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Swapping paper for plastic turned out to be the last straw for Donald Trump, who said on Friday (July 19) there are "bigger problems" than plastic drinking straws - the day after his re-election campaign manager promoted branded ones on Twitter.
The president made his position clear to reporters at the White House when, between questions about Iran and China, one asked him about growing efforts to ban plastic straws.
"I do think we have bigger problems than plastic straws," Mr Trump replied.
After a brief pause, he expanded on the point, asking: "You have a little straw. What about the plates, the wrappers and everything else that are much bigger and made of the same material?"
"Everybody focuses on the straws. There is a lot of other things to focus on," he said, smiling amusedly before adding it was "an interesting question".
The clamour to ban single-use plastics has been building momentum, with Washington and Seattle having already moved to paper drinking straws.
But on Thursday night, the president's re-election campaign manager took to Twitter to plug Trump-branded plastic straws, on sale at US$15 (S$20.40) for a pack of 10.
"Liberal paper straws don't work," read the product description on the campaign store website.
Trump's campaign manager tweeted the link along with the slogan "Making Straws Great Again".