18 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE
Dispatches Big Idea
11.19
Inconvenient Truths
SO YOU GAVE UP PLASTIC STRAWS.
WELL DONE! BUT PRESIDENT TRUMP
IS RIGHT: WE HAVE MUCH BIGGER
THINGS TO FOCUS ON.
BY MARC PERUZZIJULY 2019 WAS officially the hottest month
ever recorded, but if you only paid attention
to the political headlines last summer, you’d
be forgiven for thinking the biggest environ-
mental threat we face is plastic straws. For
that we can thank Brad Parscale.
“I’m so over paper straws,” the Trump 2020
campaign manager tweeted after suffering
a straw blowout while boarding a JetBlue
flight on July 18. The tweet, which included
the hashtag #LiberalProgress, garnered more
than 7,000 likes. It also gave Parscale a novel
fundraising idea. Almost immediately, the
Trump campaign began selling ten-packs
of plastic Trump Straws for $15. When the
first batch sold within 24 hours, the national
media took notice, and not long after that the
president himself was asked to weigh in.
“I do think we have bigger problems than
plastic straws,” he told reporters before board-
ing Marine One. “It’s interesting about plastic
straws. So you have a little straw. What about
the plates, the wrappers, and everything else
that are much bigger and they’re made of the
same material? So the straws are interesting.
Everybody focuses on the straws. There is a lot
of other things to focus on.”
OK, leaving aside the fact that the Trump