Pushback makes Trump back off electronic-cigarette flavor ban

(Photo: Dylan Hollingsworth, Bloomberg News)
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President Trump has decided not to go through with the ban on electronic-cigarette flavors that he announced more than two months ago, report Josh Dawsey and Laurie McGinley of The Washington Post.

“On Nov. 4, the night before a planned morning news conference, the president balked,” the reporters write. “Briefed on a flight to a Lexington, Ky., campaign rally, he refused to sign the one-page ‘decision memo,’ saying he didn’t want to move forward with a ban he had once backed, primarily at his wife’s and daughter’s urging, because he feared it would lead to job losses, said a Trump adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal deliberations.”

Trump reversed himself “because of worries that apoplectic vape shop owners and their customers might hurt his reelection prospects, said White House and campaign officials. He also believed job losses tied to the ban would cost him as he sought to trumpet economic growth,” the Post reports.

“Whether or when the administration will unveil a new policy to combat underage vaping is now unclear,” the paper reports. “Given Trump’s record of zigzags, some officials cautioned the president could reverse course again. Or he might back some ban on flavored e-cigarettes that exempts vape shops. Others said the White House might pursue a different tack altogether by endorsing legislation that would raise the minimum federal age for buying tobacco products to 21 from 18, or take other steps to try to prevent teens from getting access to the products. Some bet the anti-vaping effort is dead, though, especially because the administration could argue the youth vaping problem has been greatly eased by Juul Labs’ recent decision to stop selling its popular mint-flavored nicotine pods.”