See NYT piece below; as Protect Our Care has repeatedly noted, Donald Trump’s fury at FDA head Makary was motivated by gross political opportunism and fat checks from the big vape industry. Trump could not care less about the health consequences and costs of giving teenagers access to addictive flavored poison if it means his tobacco industry donors can make record profits. Now, even a top RFK Jr. spokesman has resigned in protest of Trump’s Operation Warp Speed for harmful flavored vapes.
New York Times: With a Friend in Trump, the Tobacco Industry Secures a Lucrative Win
By Christina Jewett and Kenneth P. Vogel
May 13, 2026
Over lunch at his golf club in Jupiter, Fla., on the first Saturday of May, President Trump got an earful from a group of tobacco executives and lobbyists unhappy with the way the Food and Drug Administration was regulating their industry.
Eventually Mr. Trump had heard enough. He interrupted the conversation to call Dr. Marty Makary, the F.D.A. commissioner.
No answer.
Furious, the president then dialed Dr. Makary’s boss, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and another top health official, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He complained to them about the F.D.A.’s regulation of e-cigarettes, according to three people briefed on the meeting who were not authorized to discuss it.
The message was received. Less than one week later, the executives got what they wanted.
On Friday, the F.D.A. issued new guidance that could pave the way for major tobacco companies to begin selling flavored vapes and to snare a chunk of the $6 billion e-cigarette market away from illegal Chinese competitors. The new policy bypassed the F.D.A.’s regular rule-making process.
In the intervening week, Dr. Makary continued to argue against approving flavored vapes as support from Mr. Kennedy and others collapsed around him. Health and Human Services Department staff began to draft the new plan, according to two people familiar with the events.
On Tuesday, Dr. Makary resigned, telling associates he could not in good conscience remain the head of an agency that backed such a policy.
Though there is no definitive evidence linking the new guidance to donations or lobbying, the episode represented a clear pivot in the federal government’s longtime approach to the tobacco industry.
Since the 1990s, when states extracted vast payments and other concessions from the major cigarette companies in a nationwide legal settlement, Big Tobacco has been in retreat. Cigarette sales have plummeted, and regulations have mounted as consumers and administrations from both parties embraced public health consensus about the dangers of smoking and nicotine addiction.
Mr. Trump’s first administration initially continued the trend, proposing further restrictions on cigarettes and moving to outlaw flavored vapes over concerns that their rising popularity threatened the health of a generation of adolescents.
But since then, Mr. Trump has enthusiastically welcomed the financial support of the tobacco industry and has courted e-cigarette users as a political constituency.
The new vaping guidance highlights Mr. Trump’s willingness to use his executive authority to prioritize the causes of major corporate donors over public health concerns, taxpayer interests and the judgment of experts, sometimes including those in his own administration.
The president has developed a close relationship with tobacco companies including Altria and Reynolds American, which have donated millions of dollars to his political groups and projects, including his proposed White House ballroom. Their executives attended the lunch at the president’s golf club.