Europe's heat wave has killed more than 1,300 people since June 21.
While the bodies piled up, Washington was quietly killing the same playbook here.
This week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright axed the rules built on Europe's exact mistake.
Trump Ordered It and Wright Is Delivering It
Trump has been fighting the nanny state on home appliances since the day he walked back into the Oval Office.
One of his first executive orders promised to protect "the American people's freedom to choose from a variety of goods and appliances," including gas stoves, water heaters, and showerheads.
He has made the fight personal for years, joking that weak water pressure ruins his "perfect" hair every morning.
"We're going to get rid of those restrictions," Trump said.
Jennifer Granholm ran the Energy Department under Joe Biden and spent four years building the opposite system.
Her agency piled mandate after mandate onto air conditioners, water heaters, ceiling fans, and dehumidifiers.
Every rule made the machines more expensive and harder to find on a store shelf.
Chris Wright is the man Trump put in charge of tearing that system down.
His department has withdrawn or postponed the rules covering central air conditioners, walk-in coolers, commercial refrigeration, electric motors, and gas water heaters.
In plain terms, the government just stopped adding a hidden compliance tax to the price tag on your next AC unit.
"The people, not the government, should be choosing the home appliances and products they want at prices they can afford," Wright said.
Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said Americans learned during the 2023 gas stove fight that they do not want regulators "dictating their choices" in the kitchen, the laundry room, or the utility closet.
Granholm's rules never got that message.
Nobody has to ask Washington's permission to buy a window unit that actually works.
Europe Chose Ideology And Buried A Thousand Citizens
France buried roughly 1,000 more people than expected in a single stretch of June.
Most of the dead were over 65.
Poland recorded 17 drownings in a single day as families tried to cool off in lakes because their homes had no other option.
Only one in five European homes has air conditioning, and in France, despite years of national debate over the issue, the number is barely one in four.
That is not an accident.
French television spent years running segments warning that air conditioning causes fainting and illness.
German environmentalists branded home cooling a climate sin from inside a climate-controlled ministry building.
The European Commission itself ordered an emergency shutdown of air conditioning on the lower floors of its Brussels headquarters during the worst of the heat.
The offices reserved for the people in charge stayed cold.
One staffer told Politico the arrangement amounted to "feudalism."
Italy has confirmed heat-related deaths of its own.
The United Kingdom's East Surrey Hospital hit a breaking point and turned away every case except life-threatening ones.
Grandparents in sealed Paris apartments paid the price for a culture that branded air conditioning a vice instead of a lifeline.
The Choice America Just Refused To Make
Europe's political class had the money and the technology to protect its elderly and chose ideology instead.
France discouraged the exact machines that would have saved a thousand of its own citizens this June.
Marine Le Pen is now campaigning on a promise to install air conditioning for vulnerable populations, which only proves how far behind French leadership let things get.
Trump refused to let the same mindset take root here, and he did it before a single American had to pay Europe's price.
He turned a joke about his hair into an executive order, and that executive order is now saving families real money on the air conditioners keeping their homes livable this summer.
Wright is the one signing the paperwork, but this is Trump's fight, and it has been since his first week back in office.
Air conditioning is not a luxury.
It is the difference between a grandmother surviving August and a grandmother becoming a statistic.
Europe's political class chose the statistic every time comfort clashed with their climate religion.
America's president chose his people.
France's own weather service is already warning of another heat wave before summer's end.
Brussels will keep its executive floors cold either way.
Sources:
- Ethan Howland, "Trump pauses implementation of new DOE appliance efficiency standards," Utility Dive, February 24, 2025.
- U.S. Department of Energy, "Energy Department Acts to Lower Prices and Increase Consumer Choice with Household Appliances," Department of Energy, February 14, 2025.
- The White House, "Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Makes America's Showers Great Again," The White House, April 9, 2025.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "What They Are Saying: Leaders and Americans Across the Country Applaud the Single Largest Act of Deregulation in U.S. History," EPA, February 12, 2026.
- Competitive Enterprise Institute Staff, "Home Appliance Regulations Are Out of Control," Competitive Enterprise Institute, March 14, 2025.
- Reason Staff, "I survived Europe's heat wave without AC, no thanks to regulation," Reason, June 29, 2026.
- Euronews Staff, "Europe's record heatwave shifts east, death toll tops 1,300," Euronews, June 29, 2026.
- Connexion France Staff, "Why France is behind on air-conditioning as heatwave grips the country," The Connexion, June 2026.
