Donald Trump privately pressured the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to accelerate approval of fruit-flavoured vaping products as his standing with younger voters deteriorated sharply, according to new reporting that has intensified scrutiny over political influence inside the federal regulatory system.
The controversy erupted after The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump rebuked FDA Commissioner Marty Makary during a weekend exchange over the agency's reluctance to authorise flavoured electronic cigarettes. Within hours, the FDA announced approval of four vaping products made by Los Angeles-based Glas Inc., including mango- and blueberry-flavoured nicotine pods.
The timing immediately raised questions among public-health advocates and former regulators about whether a scientific agency that historically resisted fruit-flavoured vaping products had shifted course under direct White House pressure.
The dispute also landed at a politically vulnerable moment for Trump. An NBC News Decision Desk Poll powered by SurveyMonkey, conducted between 30 March and 13 April among 3,009 adults aged 18 to 29, found that just 24% of Gen Z respondents approved of Trump's performance while 76% disapproved. The poll marked the lowest youth approval numbers of Trump's second term and represented a 12-point swing toward disapproval since August 2025.
The survey showed younger voters remained primarily focused on:
- The economy: 27%
- Threats to democracy: 19%
- Immigration: 14%
Sixty percent of respondents under 30 said they strongly disapproved of Trump's handling of the economy.
That backdrop has sharpened attention on Trump's longstanding support for vaping products. During the 2024 campaign, after meeting privately with vaping industry lobbyists, Trump posted on Truth Social: "I saved Flavored Vaping in 2019, and it greatly helped people get off smoking. I raised the age to 21, keeping it away from the kids. I'll save vaping again!"
At the time, Republicans viewed younger male voters - including nicotine users and online "vape culture" communities - as a growing constituency moving toward the party. The administration's latest regulatory shift appears to align closely with that political calculation.
According to The Wall Street Journal, White House advisers described Makary as "a problem for the administration" after he reportedly resisted approving certain fruit-flavoured products over concerns about youth appeal. Sources cited by the newspaper said Makary was considered "on thin ice."
The White House publicly rejected suggestions the commissioner's job was in danger. A spokesperson told the Journal Trump remained "thrilled" with Makary's performance. Still, the episode exposed widening tensions between political operatives eager for faster regulatory action and FDA officials historically tasked with balancing commercial interests against public-health risks.
On 5 May, the FDA formally authorised four Glas nicotine products through the agency's Premarket Tobacco Product Application pathway. The approved products included:
- Classic Menthol
- Fresh Menthol
- Gold (mango)
- Sapphire (blueberry)
Each contains 50mg/ml of tobacco-derived nicotine.
The FDA emphasized that the decision applied only to those specific devices and highlighted the company's digital age-verification system as central to the approval. Users must verify their identity through a government-issued ID connected to a smartphone before the vape device becomes operational through Bluetooth pairing.
Bret Koplow said in the agency's statement: "By helping to prevent youth use, device access restrictions are a potential game changer."
The agency also noted that teen vaping rates had fallen to their lowest levels in a decade, though critics argued those declines followed years of aggressive FDA crackdowns on sweet and candy-flavoured products. Under the Joe Biden administration, regulators rejected more than one million flavoured vaping applications in an effort to reduce youth nicotine addiction.
The new authorisations therefore represent a significant policy reversal from both Biden-era enforcement and portions of Trump's own first-term approach. In 2020, Trump's administration introduced restrictions on many cartridge-based fruit and mint-flavoured vaping products following mounting concern over teenage vaping rates.
