President Trump Just Took Aim At One Of The Most Annoying Schemes Costing Americans Money

Everybody knows the feeling.

You buy something, it breaks, and then you find out you are barely allowed to fix it. Or the only approved repair path somehow costs three times what it should.

On June 29, 2026, President Trump aimed the Environmental Protection Agency at exactly that kind of bottleneck when it comes to your car.

He signed a Presidential Memorandum titled Lowering the Cost of Living by Promoting the Freedom to Fix, directed straight to the EPA Administrator.

The target is a problem most drivers never think about until they get burned by it. When you need an emissions-related repair, there is real uncertainty about whether you can legally use affordable aftermarket parts, thanks to Clean Air Act rules on tampering with emissions controls.

And the only certification process currently recognized as good enough under that law belongs to one place: the California Air Resources Board.

Thank you President Trump for your leadership on this very important issue.

Americans should have the freedom to repair their own vehicles. Expanding access to affordable aftermarket parts will give drivers more options and help lower repair costs. https://t.co/Yt3IRQI582

— Rep. Warren Davidson (@Rep_Davidson) June 29, 2026

Think about what that means in plain terms.

A California board effectively controls a federal compliance question for the entire country. If you want a compliant aftermarket part, California’s process is the gatekeeper.

And according to the President, that gate is jammed.

The Presidential Memorandum lays out the problem directly. Consumers and the companies that make and sell aftermarket parts live with constant regulatory uncertainty over whether those parts can even be used in a repair.

The memo says CARB’s certification process is faulty, costly, and badly backlogged. It has gotten so slow that approvals now take well over a year even when the paperwork and testing are all in order.

Leaning on California for these decisions, the memo says, hands federal compliance calls to one state, chokes off compliant parts, drives prices up, and shrinks supply.

So the policy is simple. Americans should be able to fix their own vehicles with affordable parts without being treated like they cheated the emissions system.

The memo gives the EPA Administrator a fast clock. Within 30 days, the agency must issue guidance clarifying what people can actually do on their own vehicles to perform emissions repairs, or have those repairs done, consistent with the Clean Air Act.

It also opens the door past California. The Administrator is told to encourage, quickly consider, and act on requests from organizations capable of testing aftermarket parts for Clean Air Act conformance.

Where appropriate, EPA is directed to assure those groups that their proposed certification processes meet the law’s requirements, while protecting intellectual property and confidential business information.

That is the heart of it. Break California’s monopoly on the only recognized path by allowing real, legitimate alternatives.

There is also a piece for the do-it-yourself crowd. The memo tells EPA to consider deprioritizing civil tampering enforcement against anyone who, in good faith, tries to return his own vehicle to its original configuration.

The move keeps the Clean Air Act in place and avoids blessing every emissions modification under the sun. It directs EPA guidance, certification pathways, and enforcement priorities toward letting people fix their own cars.

The White House fact sheet frames the win in kitchen-table terms. The action expands Americans’ freedom to fix their own vehicles, cuts regulatory barriers, and reduces reliance on California’s slow certification system.

The fact sheet says the result should be more affordable repair options and more certainty for both manufacturers and consumers.

The administration already moved in this lane earlier this year. The fact sheet notes that President Trump’s EPA put out guidance in February 2026 affirming that farmers can lawfully fix their own agricultural and non-road equipment.

That one carried a real number. The fact sheet estimates an average savings of $33,000 per repair for farmers who no longer have to route fixes through an approved bottleneck.

The White House ties all of it back to a bigger cost-of-living and deregulation push, including action on vehicle emissions rules, CAFE penalties, and California’s EV mandates.

Strip away the policy language and the picture is straightforward. A single state board has been deciding what parts the rest of the country can use, and the line moves at a crawl.

President Trump just told the EPA to open that up, find legitimate alternatives, and stop treating an honest driver fixing his own car like a lawbreaker.