EPA official’s private response to Trump’s water pressure claims: ‘Sigh’

An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official in charge of the agency’s WaterSense program expressed exasperation to her coworkers after President Trump criticized water standards for appliances.

Emails obtained by NBC News showed Veronica Blette, head of the WaterSense program, forwarding tweets highlighting remarks that Trump made to reporters at the White House complaining about the number of times toilets at the White House needed to be flushed, adding commentary to her coworkers such as “sigh” and “I can’t even.”

Other EPA officials at the WaterSense agency also reacted similarly, including one who wrote to a faucet company executive: “We don’t like faucets that only put one drop of water on my hands — LOL — the only ones I think of that might actually just drip are for Barbie doll play houses!”

Trump attacked the EPA and the agency’s water efficiency standards during a diatribe to reporters at the White House in December, when he said that White House staff were looking “very strongly” at the building’s plumbing.

“We have a situation where we’re looking very strongly at sinks and showers, and other elements of bathrooms,” he said at the time. “You turn the faucet on … and you don’t get any water. They take a shower and water comes dripping out.”

He has also suggested at campaign rallies that some toilets need to be flushed “10 times.”

The EPA declined to comment to NBC on the emails, instead pointing to a December statement from a spokesman for the EPA who at the time said that it was working to “ensure American consumers have more choice when purchasing water products.”