Making Americans Smokers Again? New Article Examines Federal Cuts to Anti-Tobacco Programs
The Trump administration’s goal of “Making America Healthy Again” is beginning to look more like “Making Americans Smokers Again.”
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Originally published on 7/9/2026 by Michele Goodwin in Ms. magazine
The Trump administration’s goal of “Making America Healthy Again” is beginning to look more like “Making Americans Smokers Again.”
Despite a landmark government survey released in May by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that stated that for the first time, cigarette smoking among U.S. adults dropped to an all-time low of 9 percent in 2025 — the first time the smoking rate hit single digits — the Trump administration is actively undermining the decades of bipartisan efforts that made such a milestone possible.
The efforts began in September 2025 when the CDC’s prominent “Tips from Former Smokers” campaign was pulled, a move accompanied by the wholesale closure of the agency’s Office on Smoking and Health and the termination of its staff. By May, deregulation reached the Food and Drug Administration, which, despite the objections of its commissioners, Dr. Marty Makary, bowed to White House pressure by approving and widening the marketing for fruit-flavored e-cigarettes targeted at adolescents.
This dismantling of anti-tobacco infrastructure is particularly alarming when contrasted with shifting adolescent consumption trends, specifically the rising popularity of flavored nicotine pouches and electronic vapes. The FDA reports 7.2 percent of high school and middle school students—that’s 20.1 million children—reported using tobacco last year, and 5.2 percent used e-cigarettes. If smoking continues at its current rate among U.S. teens, the CDC estimates, one out of every 13 Americans currently younger than 18 will die prematurely from a smoking-related illness.
Recent reporting by The New York Times also pointed out that tobacco companies gave millions to political organizations related to the Trump administration last year. Notably, industry giant Reynolds American, the company that makes Newport and Camel cigarettes, made a $5 million donation to a Trump super-PAC one week before the flavored e-cigarettes were approved.
The rollback of federal tobacco control initiatives promises to do tremendous harm to public health and the nation’s most vulnerable populations — including low-income communities, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, military personnel, and individuals with mental illness — among whom smoking rates remain disproportionately high. To prevent next year’s CDC survey from revealing a catastrophic resurgence in nicotine addiction, we must reject the influence of Big Tobacco and reinvest in public health interventions, research, and resources.
