FDA guidance – Days after a Reynolds subsidiary donated $5 million to a MAGA-aligned Super PAC, Trump’s White House pushed through a sharp turn on flavored e-cigarettes—helping open the door for flavored products while claiming new focus on illegal foreign vapes. The sequenc
On a Friday when the FDA quietly issued new guidance on flavored vapes, the political timing was the part that refused to stay quiet.
Earlier that week, a Reynolds subsidiary had donated $5 million to MAGA Inc., a Trump-backed Super PAC. And before the guidance hit, the chain of meetings and phone calls described in a New York Times report appears to have moved straight from tobacco boardrooms to the levers of federal regulation.
The upheaval began with personnel. Earlier this month. President Donald Trump ousted a top official in his administration and pushed through policy change mere days after the corporate donation—according to the Times report. Dr. Marty Makary. the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner. left his job on May 12. reportedly after quitting amid rumors Trump would fire him.
Makary had been pressed over approvals Trump considered too slow. Trump was annoyed at Makary for “not moving quickly enough to approve flavored vapes and nicotine products,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
For years, flavored e-cigarette rules have sat at the center of a cultural and political fight over youth access. Federal law has long banned the sale of any tobacco products to minors. In 2019, Trump signed into law a bill raising the federal minimum age to buy tobacco to 21. And since 2020. the FDA had banned most flavored vapes over concerns those products would appeal to children—allowing only tobacco- or menthol-flavored cartridges.
That compromise left a path for illegal products. The material says those restrictions have allowed illicit products—almost all from China—with candy and fruit flavors to dominate the $6 billion e-cigarette market in the U.S.
During his 2024 campaign, Trump vowed he would “save” vaping, an issue that appealed to younger MAGA voters. The Times report says Makary refused to budge on approvals for menthol, mango, and blueberry flavors that were sought by Glas, a Los Angeles vape manufacturer.
Then came the May shift.
On May 8, the FDA issued a new policy. It promised a crackdown on illicit e-cigarettes while also allowing an expansion of tobacco products—including possibly flavored e-cigarettes—so long as they were not targeting underage users by incorporating “certain presumptively underage-appealing elements such as depicting a cartoon-like fictional character; disguising its nature as a vaping product; or resembling a children’s toy. phone. or gaming platform.”.
Two days after Makary resigned, the Times reported that the outgoing FDA chief had told those close to him he could not, in good conscience, approve flavored vapes “given their appeal to young people,” and would not do something he did not believe in.
But the Times report says there were other relevant events at the FDA in the middle of those few days—events that, in the telling, help explain why the policy posture changed.
A meeting with Trump set the stage, the Times said. It reported that after a May 8 guidance update was coming into view, Trump met with executives from Reynolds American—along with two lobbyists for Reynolds and two executives from Altria—at a lunch held at his golf club in Jupiter, Florida.
The Times says the conversation involved tobacco executives and lobbyists “express[ing] dissatisfaction” with how the FDA was regulating their industry. The report says Trump interrupted their conversation to call Makary, and that Makary did not answer.
Then, the story moves to the phone calls and the policy outcome.
According to the Times, Trump complained to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—whose agency oversees the FDA—and to Dr. Mehmet Oz, who heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, about the FDA’s regulation of e-cigarettes. The Times report says the meeting participants told it that Trump pushed for the policy changes the tobacco industry wanted.
Less than a week later, the FDA issued guidance that the Times said could pave the way for major tobacco companies to begin selling flavored vapes and to win a chunk of the $6 billion e-cigarette market away from illegal Chinese competitors.
The new policy also bypassed the FDA’s regular rule-making process. It includes a pledge to prioritize efforts to stop the import of illegal foreign vapes, an idea that has bipartisan support in Congress. The guidance could also allow higher nicotine levels in nicotine pouches.
The Times acknowledged there was “no definitive evidence linking the new F.D.A. guidance to the lunch. the donation or specific lobbying.” Still. the report described the change as likely to be very lucrative for the tobacco industry and a victory for an industry that had been “on the defensive for years.”.
And that brings the focus back to money.
The New York Times reported that some other relevant event between Makary’s reported resignation and the guidance involved a multimillion-dollar donation to a Trump-backed Super PAC. A Reynolds subsidiary donated $5 million to MAGA Inc. The corporate entity had previously donated $3 million to the same PAC. $10 million to a PAC supporting Trump’s 2024 campaign. and the fund for Trump’s White House ballroom project.
MAGA Inc. has faced accusations before of pay-for-access—granting pardons, appointing people to government positions, or pushing preferred regulatory or policy changes for donors.
The new $5 million donation was made on April 30 and revealed in a campaign finance report for the PAC filed Wednesday. Two days after that donation, the Times reported Trump met with top Reynolds executives and lobbyists at his golf club in Jupiter, Florida.
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, was among those who excoriated the Trump administration for the “corruption” described in the Times article.
Murphy’s critique was blunt. laying out a timeline: Thursday. RJ Reynolds donates $5 million to Trump; Saturday. Trump invites RJR executives to Mar-a-Lago. the executives ask to loosen regulations on flavored vapes. and Trump calls up RFK Jr. and tells him to change it; then Friday, the FDA changes policy.
In the days around those moves. what stands out is how fast federal policy shifted—from a ban on most flavored vapes since 2020 to an FDA guidance that opens space for flavored products under a framework aimed at steering clear of underage “presumptively underage-appealing elements.” At the center of the dispute sits the question that critics cannot stop asking: how close the politics and the pressure came to the regulation that followed.
United States politics Trump administration FDA flavored vapes e-cigarettes Dr. Marty Makary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Mehmet Oz Reynolds American Altria MAGA Inc. Super PAC campaign finance Mar-a-Lago Chris Murphy