An FDA press conference in Washington, D.C., at which the agency's authorization of fruit-flavored nicotine vape products was announced to reporters.
Officials present declined to comment on the vapor.
Getty Images / File
A major tobacco company donated $5 million to MAGA Inc., the super PAC aligned with President Trump, shortly before the president personally telephoned FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary to press for the approval of fruit-flavored vape products, including mango and blueberry varieties, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The FDA approved the products. The White House said the decision was guided by Gold Standard Science.
The approval, which covers products sold by Los Angeles-based Glas Inc. under flavor names including Gold and Sapphire, marks a reversal of Biden-era policy under which the FDA rejected more than 26 million applications for flavored vape products with the stated intention of keeping them away from children. The FDA's own data shows its previous crackdown, combined with public education efforts, prevented just under 450,000 young people from starting to smoke. The White House said the decision was guided by Gold Standard Science.
The president chastised Commissioner Makary for not moving faster on the issue, sources said. The sources are familiar with the matter. Trump had sought information from advisors about how his base felt about vaping before making the calls, according to people familiar with the matter, several of whom are at Mar-a-Lago. In 2019, during his first term, Trump said he would ban flavored vapes because, in his words, "we can't allow people to get sick and allow our youth to be so affected." Following a subsequent meeting with a key tobacco industry lobbyist, Trump changed his position. The timeline of the $5 million donation, the president's phone calls to the FDA, and the agency's approval of the products has not been officially explained. Sources said the correlation was unclear.
"The only factor guiding the Trump administration's health policymaking is Gold Standard Science." — White House spokesman Kush Desai, in a statement that did not address the $5 million, the phone calls, the lobbyist meeting, the 26 million rejected applications, the 450,000 children, or the 2019 quote.Reynolds American, the nation's second-largest tobacco company and maker of Vuse-branded vape products, donated to a Trump campaign subsidiary during the 2024 election cycle, according to reporting by the Washington Post. Anti-smoking organizations expressed alarm at the FDA approval. "Flavors induce people, many of them children and young adults, to use a product that may result in a lifetime of addiction and other harms," said Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy of Action on Smoking and Health. The White House said the decision was guided by Gold Standard Science. The sources are at Mar-a-Lago. They declined to be named. This is standard.
TRUMP GAVE IT BACK. For YEARS, Biden's radical FDA told you what flavors you were allowed to enjoy. Mango? BANNED. Blueberry? BANNED. The nanny state decided you couldn't be trusted to make your own choices. Meanwhile, CHILDREN were protected from products they were going to find anyway. That ENDS NOW. The Trump administration's Gold Standard Science has determined that a $5 million donation and a direct call to the FDA Commissioner is all the peer review a product needs. FREEDOM tastes like mango. LIMITED TIME. AGE VERIFICATION REQUIRED. DOES NOT APPLY TO THE 450,000 CHILDREN WHO WOULD HAVE STARTED SMOKING BUT DIDN'T. *Gold Standard Science is not a peer-reviewed methodology. The $5 million donation to MAGA Inc. and the subsequent FDA approval are a sequence of events. The administration has declined to characterize them as related. Sources say they are related. The sources are at Mar-a-Lago. They were vaping mango at the time.
You've read your complimentary grift article.
To continue receiving health policy updates, campaign finance disclosures, and Gold Standard Science delivered directly to your lungs, subscribe to The Grifton Post.
Sources say the next story is already written. The sources are at Mar-a-Lago.
