President Donald Trump, who once declared he had \u201csaved\u201d flavored vapes, grew his stock holdings this year to as much as $1.64 million in tobacco giant Philip Morris.<\/p>\n
He also had holdings in Altria and a third leading tobacco company, though an apparent discrepancy in his disclosures clouds the extent of his investments. In 2025, tobacco interests donated $6 million to MAGA Inc., a super PAC that supports the president, and Trump\u2019s inauguration. And, on April 30, a week before FDA guidance that provided a critical boost to the industry, Reynolds American dropped an additional $5 million into the super PAC\u2019s coffers.<\/p>\n
The stock trades and political contributions occurred as the Trump administration pursued a broadly pro-tobacco agenda: Its FDA piloted a fast-track program to approve nicotine pouches. It unveiled a program to allow vapes on the market more rapidly, despite resistance from career civil servants and leadership, culminating this year in guidance waving through flavored electronic cigarettes. It cut public health employees focusing on anti-tobacco policy. And it broadened enforcement against illicit e-cigarettes, competitors to the big industry players with a financial relationship to Trump.<\/p>\n
It amounts to the most pro-tobacco, pro-nicotine presidency in some time \u2014 a remarkable policy given the tens of millions of deaths cigarettes caused during the 20th century. Even in recent years, anti-smoking groups say a half-million Americans a year die from cigarettes. Industry advocates say the toll helps justify a shift to e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches, which they say are less harmful. However, public health advocates say these products carry their own risks, such as addiction.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers and public health leaders have criticized the recent FDA guidance and approvals as a \u201clucrative payday<\/a>\u201d that ignored scientific evidence to deliver what investment analysts have described as \u201cvery positive\u201d steps for influential tobacco companies.<\/p>\n The scale of the money is \u201cunprecedented and problematic,\u201d said Brian King, who was pushed out of the FDA\u2019s tobacco office last April and now works as an executive at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. He fears that steering public policy toward tobacco \u2014 still addictive and harmful to health \u2014 puts Americans at risk.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a gift on a platter with a side of public health malpractice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The White House did not comment on the president\u2019s investments or industry donations to MAGA Inc. Spokesperson Kush Desai said, \u201cThe only guiding factor behind the Trump administration\u2019s health policymaking is Gold Standard Science. FDA\u2019s regulatory treatment of nicotine pouches and vapes is rooted in recent evidence that has found that these products can help adults quit smoking.\u201d<\/p>\n Philip Morris disputed any connection. Company representatives \u201cregularly attend events and forums where we share our commitment to improving public health in the United States,\u201d spokesperson Samuel Dashiell said, arguing that the company\u2019s vapes offer a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes. \u201cWe do not comment on individual engagements or on the personal financial matters or disclosures of public officials.\u201d Other tobacco companies whose stock Trump has bought and sold during his second term or that donated to groups aligned with Trump \u2014 Juul, Reynolds American, and Altria \u2014 did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n The financial stakes are huge. Investment analysts at Goldman Sachs say the newer products, touted as safer, make more money per sale than traditional cigarettes. Philip Morris expects Zyn pouches, for example, to make eight times the gross profits of its cigarettes, Goldman Sachs analysts said in March 2025.<\/p>\n When he ran for his second term, Trump promoted himself as a pro-tobacco candidate, posting that he had \u201csaved\u201d flavored vaping<\/a> and that President Joe Biden and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris \u201cwant everything banned.\u201d<\/p>\n Since late 2023, MAGA Inc. has received over $20 million in funding from the industry, federal campaign records show. Trump\u2019s inauguration garnered nearly $4 million more. His ballroom project has disclosed<\/a> donations of an unknown amount from Altria and Reynolds American.<\/p>\n Recent Trump administration actions show he\u2019s followed through with his campaign rhetoric. In May, the FDA released consequential guidance<\/a> that allows manufacturers to market their vapes and nicotine pouches while awaiting agency approval. It also approved several vaping products. The month before, the Vapor Technology Association, which donated $1.25 million to Trump\u2019s inauguration, told its vape-manufacturer members<\/a> it had met with the White House to discuss its concerns.<\/p>\n By that point, Trump had gone on a stock-purchasing spree. In March he made eight separate purchases of Philip Morris or Altria stock, worth as much as $275,000, according to a disclosure form that bears Trump\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n It is difficult to be precise about Trump\u2019s tobacco investments, because the financial disclosures show only ranges of investment amounts. They also have an apparent discrepancy. In January, the president sold $500,000 to $1,000,000 in Altria stock. But that\u2019s confusing because previous disclosures didn\u2019t show Trump held that much equity in Altria. The White House declined to comment on the matter.<\/p>\n The FDA\u2019s May guidance and approvals drew condemnation from public health leaders, who worry that the agency is allowing products with flavors especially appealing to young people. \u201cAfter years of recognizing the dangers flavored e-cigarettes pose to youth, it is deeply troubling to see FDA ignore the scientific evidence and reverse course,\u201d American Lung Association CEO Harold Wimmer said in a published statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s blatantly illegal, both on its merits and also procedurally, because it was issued as a final guidance without even giving the public an opportunity to comment on it,\u201d said Mitch Zeller, a former head of the FDA\u2019s tobacco center.<\/p>\n A group of Democratic senators called the decision a \u201ca free pass to addictive and harmful vapes\u201d in letters to Reynolds American and Altria. It would lead to \u201ca lucrative payday after years of unsuccessful legislative and regulatory efforts to weaken federal tobacco oversight,\u201d they concluded.<\/p>\n Members of Congress are barred from insider trading, and many legislators would like to see trading of individual company stocks banned for all members. In the wake of Trump\u2019s most recent financial disclosures, with revelations that he often traded in companies<\/a> manufacturing GLP-1 drugs before his administration steered policy in a favorable direction, some members are calling for the president, too, to be barred from stock trading.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s tobacco policies have garnered favorable grades from investors. At Goldman Sachs, bankers described the May FDA guidance as \u201cvery positive\u201d for Philip Morris and \u201ca significant step in the FDA\u2019s positioning toward enforcement and acceptance of nic pouch (as well as e-vapor) innovation generally.\u201d<\/p>\n And Barclays analysts said the FDA\u2019s guidance was good news for Juul, a leading vape producer. (In November, the company contributed $1 million to MAGA Inc.)<\/p>\n FDA resistance to speeding up approvals for these products reportedly contributed to the ouster of agency commissioner Marty Makary, who did not respond to requests for comment. According to The New York Times<\/a> and The Wall Street Journal<\/a>, the White House repeatedly intervened in the approval process.<\/p>\n \u201cI served during the entire first Trump administration as center director, and there was never any pressure from any political appointee at FDA, at HHS, or the White House when it came to application review,\u201d Zeller said.<\/p>\n But recent changes in FDA policy can be traced to the access tobacco firms have had to the White House, he said.<\/p>\n By and large, the Trump administration has delivered on industry priorities. Soon after the inauguration \u2014 which tobacco companies had donated heavily to \u2014 the administration withdrew a Biden-era proposal to ban menthol cigarettes. The administration has eased the path for nicotine pouches such as Zyn. Investment analysts viewed government crackdowns on illicit e-cigarettes positively: Barclays wrote in January that \u201ccompany commentary on enforcement has also been upbeat, suggesting that the tide could begin to turn in favour of the legal players in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, the Trump administration\u2019s government layoffs have decimated public health\u2019s tobacco control offices. The work of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s office of smoking has been sharply curtailed; its flagship \u201cTips From Former Smokers\u201d campaign, which seeks to persuade viewers not to smoke, has been off the air for months, King said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not difficult to see that less dollars invested in prevention and control is going to lead to more tobacco product use and tobacco-related disease,\u201d King said, especially given the government\u2019s decades-long success in reducing cigarette usage.<\/p>\n The shift is particularly ironic given the administration\u2019s focus \u2014 through its Make America Healthy Again slogan \u2014 on chronic disease. \u201cAttempting to combat chronic disease without tobacco control is like attempting a triathlon without a bicycle: You are destined for failure before leaving the starting line,\u201d King concluded.<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/courts\/fda-tobacco-vape-vaping-ecigarette-smoking-trump-investments-maga-donations\/”>article<\/a><\/a>; first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org”>KFF<\/a> Health News<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative<\/a> Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2023\/04\/kffhealthnews-icon.png?w=150"<\/a>; style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n
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