President Donald Trump signed an affordability-focused presidential memorandum on Monday aimed at lowering costs for Americans who repair their own cars with aftermarket, or third-party, parts.
The president signed a similar measure in February for farmers pertaining to the repair of farm equipment.
“This is something that’s very exciting to me,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday evening. “It means a lot to people that own vehicles, cars in particular, but cars and anything else. It’s going to save them a lot of money. They’re going to be able to do it themselves.”
Trump claimed that the subject gained his attention because he “noticed they were arresting people for fixing their car.”
“That’s not even believable,” he said. “It’s right to fix, and I think it’s, it’s really common sense. If somebody wants to fix — some of these people have better mechanics than the mechanics in the shop. They’re telling the mechanic in the shop how to fix their car or their truck.”
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, who was in the Oval Office for Trump’s announcement, clarified that the Trump administration would not “be going after people who are fixing their own vehicle, like past administrations have.
“The only third-party certification for these aftermarket parts is [California Air Resources Board] in California, a process that’s backlogged and faulty,” he said. “So we’re going to break that monopoly, and no longer will CARB be the only third-party certifier for these after-market parts.”
You can watch Trump’s comments in full below.