EXCLUSIVE — President Donald Trump is being lobbied by activists on both sides of the aisle to crack down on the sale of illicit, Chinese-manufactured electronic cigarettes to American children and teenagers.
Javier Palomarez, president of the Hispanic Business Caucus, sent a letter last month to the president and members of the Cabinet pressing Trump to “set up an effective regulatory and enforcement framework” targeting black market vapes.
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The letter, obtained and reviewed by the Washington Examiner, proposes securing the northern and southern borders to prevent cartels from smuggling black market Chinese products into the United States, tightening regulations regarding shipments received from China, and publishing new vape-related guidance for consumers and retailers.
“More authorizations will provide us with a working market with safer products. More enforcement will stop illegal imports and protect consumers. More transparency will provide clarity for businesses, retailers, and law enforcement,” the letter concluded.
Trump has dabbled in vaping politics. In 2019, he proposed a ban on selling flavored e-cigarettes to deter rising teenage vaping. He then slowed the rollout and eventually amended the proposed rule in 2020, allowing manufacturers to circumvent the ban by going through a premarket tobacco application process.
He also signed a bill into law raising the federal minimum age for purchasing all tobacco products, including vapes, from 18 to 21. And on the 2024 campaign trail, Trump injected himself into the debate, repeatedly vowing to “save vaping.”
“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.’ Kamala and Joe want everything banned, killing small businesses all over the Country,” the president said in a September 2024 post on Truth Social. “I’ll save Vaping again!”
The White House told the Washington Examiner that it received USHBC’s letter but declined to comment on any forthcoming policy decisions.
The departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security, as well as the Food and Drug Administration, also declined to comment.
Youth vaping rates exploded after electronic nicotine delivery systems hit the market in the early 2000s, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention charting a roughly 2,000% increase in the number of teenage vapers from 2011 to 2019. And while youth usage rates have slowly decreased over the past five years, CDC data show that, in 2024, more than 1.63 million middle school and high school students reported using e-cigarettes daily. Of that total, more than 67% reported trying to quit in the last year, while nearly 88% reported preferring flavored products to nonflavored ones.
Meanwhile, industry figures estimate that Chinese manufacturers are producing the overwhelming majority of illicit, unregulated vapes sold in the U.S.
Tobacco conglomerate Altria told shareholders during an earnings report earlier this month that 70% of black market e-cigarettes can be traced back to China, while Polaris National Security, a think tank founded by Morgan Ortagus, deputy U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, believes that number is north of 90%. In a white paper last month, Polaris suggested that Chinese manufacturers will broach $200 billion in annual illicit vape sales by 2030.
According to the CDC, teenage vaping is not specifically a racial problem for Hispanic youth, with 6.1% of Hispanic students reporting daily vape usage compared to 7% of black students and 5.9% of white students. However, Palomarez said in an interview that, beyond the obvious health concerns, the black market vape trade is causing significant confusion among USHBC’s membership of more than 4.5 million.
“We’re finding that some of our own members are selling this stuff, not even knowing that it’s illegal, and so that’s concerning as all get out,” he explained. “Think about an illicit vape — it’s very easy to package, very light. It has an amazing shelf life. Obviously, there are no regulatory or health issues or permitting that you need to worry about. It takes up very little shelf space. It’s got a great profit margin.”
Palomarez even suggested that American politicians’ focus on the fentanyl trade is incentivizing black market Chinese producers and the cartels who carry their product across U.S. borders to prioritize the vape trade over other contraband.
“It’s China manufacturing this stuff, but it’s the cartels that are carrying them into the United States,” he continued. “It’s clear to me, were it not for the Chinese manufacturers being incentivized to do this, because there are loopholes all over the place and we’re not enforcing, and a willing cartel that’s more than willing to carry it across the border, we wouldn’t have this problem.”
Palomarez also said Chinese manufacturers are specifically targeting young Americans through the use of flavored-nicotine products and packaging with bright colors or animals, and even suggested that some Chinese e-cigarettes sold in U.S. markets are clearly labeled “Not For Sale In China.”
“They won’t sell this s*** to their own kids, but they’re selling it to ours. And you know, it enrages me that, you know, for four years this thing languished out there,” he said. “The Chinese jumped right through that loophole. And, you know, are making hundreds of millions of dollars on this market.”
Palomarez, a self-identified “known Democrat,” said he was disappointed with former President Joe Biden’s approach to curbing tobacco consumption.
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Biden pursued two smoking-related regulations during his term in office: a ban on menthol and other flavored cigarettes and, in late 2024, an effort to mandate “low-nicotine” levels for all combustible cigarettes, which would have effectively banned all products currently available in legal markets. Drug policy and law enforcement experts argued widely at the time that Biden’s rules were “regressive,” would disproportionately affect communities of color, and would drive a surge in black market sales.
Trump rescinded the flavored-cigarette rule shortly after entering office, but his FDA reintroduced and amended a version of Biden’s low-nicotine standard in late February.
“I have higher hopes that this administration will work with us on this issue than I ever did with the last administration. I hate to say it, but that’s the truth,” Palomarez explained.
The matter is also gaining some traction on Capitol Hill. A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Reps. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), and John Moolenaar (R-MI), sent a separate letter to the administration in March urging the president to mobilize the executive branch to “combat this serious issue, including by pursuing, as appropriate, civil and criminal penalties both against companies who unlawfully export to the United States and the distributors who sell them to America’s children.”
Still, one senior Trump administration official told the Washington Examiner that anti-Chinese vape activists are facing some administrative roadblocks created by the president.
In addition to increasing regulation enforcement, anti-vaping activists have called on Trump to place new penalties on American companies relating to the sale of illicit e-cigarette products.
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However, an executive order Trump signed shortly after entering office, which requires the federal government to take 10 regulations off the books for every new one added, could complicate that.
“I would guess that this is pretty low on the president’s to-do list,” the official, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told the Washington Examiner. “Still, if [HHS Secretary Robert F.] Kennedy [Jr.] gets on board, that could change.”