The Trump administration’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should reverse a Biden-era ban on flavored vaping. E-Cigarettes provide safety and choice for consumers who want to avoid smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes. The Biden administration used the FDA to insert politics into decision-making and pushed to ban these products because of pressure from groups opposed to vaping freedom.
As a candidate, Donald J. Trump pushed the idea of freedom. His administration rehired many military men and women who were fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, because they thought a mandate was violating their right to refuse it. President Trump issued an executive order on January 20, 2025 that reversed Biden administration policies to pressure social media companies to ban speech and deplatform individuals who displeased them, restoring the First Amendment right of free speech to Americans impacted. It would be consistent to restore the freedom of adult Americans to purchase the e-cigarette product of their choice.
The Supreme Court recently upheld the procedures used by the Biden administration to ban flavored vaping. This decision was based solely on the procedures used to implement the ban. The decision does not prevent the Trump administration from reversing that decision tomorrow if they want to restore some freedom for consumers. The Biden administration went too far, using confusing procedures to essentially implement a de facto ban on all vaping products.
As a candidate, President Donald J. Trump promised to “save“ flavored vaping. The president has been consistent in upholding his campaign promises. Trump recently signed into law three resolutions repealing a national electric vehicle mandate that originated in California on gas-powered cars and trucks. The president has pushed hard to keep his promise to not tax tips, overtime, and Social Security disbursements. The promise to save flavored vaping should be next on his list.
The American people support freedom to vape, and that issue clearly helped candidate Trump to become President Trump. Kellyanne Conaway, a close confidante of President Trump, polled the issue in July of 2024 and found in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania that “a majority of Americans support fair and reasonable regulations that would preserve flavored e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool for adults while also safeguarding youth through marketing and advertising restrictions.” The poll showed that, with some education on the fact that vaping products are a smoking cessation tool for adults, they oppose the Biden ban. The American people support a repeal of the ban.
The FDA is one of many agencies that has acted beyond the original mandate for the agency. The FDA has had a history of rejecting vaping applications in an obvious push for a de facto blanket ban. Reuters reported on January 3, 2024, “in a series of decisions beginning in 2021, the agency has rejected more than a million applications, including Triton’s and Vapetasia’s, finding no studies show the products have any benefit for adult smokers. As of November, the FDA had approved only 23 e-cigarette products, all tobacco flavored.” The FDA is clearly wrong to claim that these products have no benefits, because they help people addicted to tobacco cigarettes to kick the habit.
Tobacco-related illnesses have devastated the health of Americans. The estimate is that a half-million Americans die every year because of tobacco-related disease. Smoking illness is preventable, and almost all lung cancer in America is caused by smoking. Nicotine alternatives are being denied by the holdover policies of the Biden administration in a way that harms Americans who can’t access alternatives. Americans should have the freedom to smoke tobacco cigarettes, because they are well aware of the risks, yet they should also have the freedom to access alternatives.
President Trump recognized during his campaign the popularity of the idea of legalizing flavored e-cigarettes. A removal of the ban will provide Americans access to a safer nicotine alternative. Adults have the right to make their own decisions without government interference.
Brian Darling is former counsel for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
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