More than a year ago, while campaigning, President Donald Trump claimed to have saved “flavored vaping” and promised voters he would do so again. Nearly ten months into his current administration, that promise remains unfulfilled – if not outright broken – for the more than 20 million American adults who rely on flavored vapor products to reduce or quit smoking combustible cigarettes.
It’s a shame. Rather than protecting adult choice, the Trump administration has launched a crusade against the very products adults want – spending taxpayer dollars to eliminate consumer options, shutter small businesses, and prop up dwindling cigarette sales. That’s the opposite of making America healthy again.
Vapers, however, need not accept the status quo. In 2009, Congress gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority to regulate tobacco products through the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA). In 2025 and beyond, lawmakers from both parties should amend – or even repeal – this disastrous law. Reforming the FDA’s arbitrary authorization process would restore consumer choice, curb wasteful enforcement spending, and protect millions of adults who use these products safely every day. Outside of FDA overreach, these products pose no significant public threat and, in fact, contribute billions to local, state, and federal economies.
According to Tobacco Harm Reduction 101’s annual state analyses, as of 2023, more than 20 million adults – 7.8 percent of the U.S. population – used e-cigarettes, a 68.6 percent increase since 2016, when the FDA first imposed its burdensome regulatory regime. Meanwhile, youth vaping has plummeted: in 2024, only 5.9 percent of middle and high school students reported current use, down from 20 percent in 2019. Yet the “youth vaping epidemic” narrative persists among anti-tobacco groups, the media, and government agencies. In September, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a Youth Vaping Resource Guide to “combat the ongoing youth vaping epidemic,” even as the CDC had previously reported in 2024 that youth vaping had fallen to “the lowest level in a decade,” with half a million fewer young users than the year before.
Despite these declines, the administration continues using non-FDA resources to target products used almost exclusively by adults – most of whom currently smoke or once did. This September, the U.S. Department of Justice and FDA announced the seizure of more than 2.1 million vaping products from distributors and retailers across seven states, assisted by the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
These actions followed earlier raids from the Biden administration: in April 2024, $700,000 worth of products were seized in California; in June, the agencies formed a multi-agency “task force” to combat the so-called “illegal distribution” of e-cigarettes, which later confiscated over 50,000 products valued at more than $1 million in Chicago. By October, the total had surged to more than three million units valued at $76 million, followed by another 628,000 seized in January 2025.
This isn’t saving vaping – it’s strangling it. These policies preserve Big Tobacco’s dominance while destroying the small businesses that built the modern harm reduction movement. In 2020, the FDA received tens of millions of product applications, ranging from large manufacturers to local shops crafting small-batch e-liquids. The following year, it denied nearly 90 percent, citing inadequate evidence that flavors help adult smokers quit – despite data showing youth vaping had already declined sharply. To date, the agency has authorized just 39 e-cigarette products, limited to tobacco and menthol flavors. That’s grossly insufficient for the tens of millions of adults who depend on flavored options to stay smoke-free.
The crackdown also threatens economic stability. In 2023, the independent vapor industry generated more than $17.5 billion in economic output and $5.9 billion in tax revenue. Growth in adult vaping mirrors historic declines in smoking: between 2016 and 2023, adult vaping rose 68.6 percent while smoking fell 30.7 percent. Smoking rates among young adults aged 18–24 dropped to 5.6 percent in 2023 – just above the World Health Organization’s 5 percent threshold for a “smoke-free” society.
It’s long overdue for President Trump to honor his campaign promise and truly save flavored vaping. But if he won’t, vapers and tobacco harm reduction advocates must turn to Congress and state leaders to reform – or repeal – the Tobacco Control Act. The United States should not continue protecting Big Tobacco at the expense of innovation, small business, and millions of Americans who simply want to live longer, healthier lives.