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It was already known that President Donald Trump pressured top health officials to allow flavored vapes to hit the market after being leaned on by Big Tobacco executives earlier this month.

But The New York Times has revealed that the decision came just over a week after a massive super political action committee (PAC) donation from one of the cigarette companies looking to have the regulations lifted.

Kenneth Vogel and Christina Jewett reported for the Times that on April 30, a subsidiary of the tobacco company Reynolds Americans — which owns Camel and Lucky Strike cigarettes — donated $5 million to the Trump-backed super PAC MAGA Inc., according to a financial report filed on Wednesday. It brought the total amount donated to the PAC up to $8 million.

Corruption in plain sight. In the Trump Administration, money beats MAHA every time. https://t.co/kBBBtsQLUw— Congressman Seth Magaziner (@Rep_Magaziner) May 21, 2026

Corruption in plain sight. In the Trump Administration, money beats MAHA every time. https://t.co/kBBBtsQLUw

The donation came just two days before tobacco industry executives held their sit-down with Trump at his golf club in Jupiter, Florida, where they told the president they were displeased with the FDA’s ban on flavored vapes, which was enacted in light of evidence that they were driving an epidemic of youth vaping.

According to a youth survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the vast majority of middle- and high school-aged e-cigarette users prefer fruit and candy-flavored vapes.

The Times reported earlier this month that immediately after receiving an earful from executives at Reynolds and Philip Morris owner Altria, Trump rang Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services head Mehmet Oz to complain about the FDA’s ban on........

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