A tobacco giant donated $5 million to President Donald Trump's super PAC just days before his administration rolled out a new policy that could prove enormously lucrative for the industry — and critics are not letting it slide.
Reynolds American, makers of Vuse vapes, made the donation on April 30 through a subsidiary to MAGA Inc., the Trump-backed super PAC, bringing its total contributions to the group to $8 million, according to campaign finance records released Wednesday and reported by the New York Times.
Two days after the donation, a top Reynolds executive and two company lobbyists had lunch with Trump at his Jupiter, Florida, golf club. Two executives from rival tobacco company Altria were also there. During the meal, the industry representatives complained about FDA regulation of e-cigarettes, and Trump interrupted the meeting to personally call FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. When Makary didn't pick up, Trump called his boss, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to complain about vape regulation.
Less than a week later, the FDA issued new guidance that could allow major tobacco companies to sell flavored vapes and capture a chunk of the $6 billion e-cigarette market. The policy circumvented the FDA's normal rule-making process, the Times noted.
Four days after the guidance was announced, Makary resigned, telling associates he could not in good conscience remain at the agency after it backed such a policy.
The revelation triggered immediate outrage online.
"President Trump doesn't even bother to hide his grift anymore," investor Doug Kass posted on X.
Commentator Paul Niland was equally blunt: "If you assumed the FDA approval of flavoured vapes could only have been as a result of a bribe, congratulations. You have passed the test of being a rational human being," he wrote.
Physician Tyler Black, MD, posted simply: "I was told America didn't like tyrants."
Perhaps most cutting was the reaction from musician Five Times August, who responded to the news with a single line of biting sarcasm: "Make America Healthy or whatever" — a reference to RFK Jr.'s signature MAHA health initiative.
The White House denied any connection between the donation and the policy shift.
"The only guiding factor behind the Trump administration’s health policymaking is gold standard science,” a White House spokesman told the Times in a statement. The spokesman said the FDA's regulatory treatment of vapes and nicotine pouches “is rooted in recent evidence that has found they can help adults quit smoking.”
