President Donald Trump is absolutely furious with his Food and Drug Administration Commissioner because he will not legalize flavored vapes quickly enough.
Trump has been pushing for FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to approve flavored e-cigarettes, making a series of calls arguing for the importance of flavored vaping to woo young MAGA voters, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.
But now Makary has reportedly blocked Trump’s new vaping agenda, and White House insiders now say that he is becoming a thorn in the administration’s side.
He earlier refused to go along with Trump’s preference to greenlight menthol, blueberry, and mango flavored vapes from Glas, a California-based vape company.
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump promised he would “save vaping,” marking a sharp reversal from the policies implemented during his first administration. The first Trump White House raised the age to buy nicotine products from 18 to 21, and essentially banned fruity and mint flavored vapes in an effort to curb teenage vaping.
The Biden administration similarly declined to approve flavored vapes.
The FDA did not immediatly return the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
In a statement to the Journal, White House spokesperson Kush Desai blamed the Biden administration for the vaping regulations, saying, “Makary’s trailblazing leadership will continue to make evidence-based decisions that rectify the Biden administration’s missteps and that are in the best interest of the American people.”
Even before Trump’s vaping push, Marky’s tenure in the Trump White House has been rocky.
His leadership heading the FDA has been marked by constant turnover of top officials, including Dr. Richard Pazdur, a longtime cancer regulator who cited Marky’s leadership failures as his reason for leaving.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also contemplated installing someone else to lead the agency and making Markey more of a figurehead, the Journal reported in November.
At the same time, Trump has been warming up to the idea of firing his officials.
While his first term was notable for its constant turnover in staff, as he routinely fired people via Twitter or they stormed out of his administration of their own accord, Trump has been more restrained in his second term—until recent weeks.
After he fired both his attorney general and Homeland Security secretary in rapid succession, the increasingly erratic president is said to be leaning towards giving more of his administration officials the boot before the 2026 midterm elections, Reuters reported.
