Another Resignation. This Time From RFK's Own Office.

Richard Danker didn't quietly slip out the door. Kennedy's senior spokesman resigned Wednesday with a letter, viewed by NBC News and first obtained by The New York Times, that named exactly what he was walking away from.

His words: flavored e-cigarettes "would appeal to children and expose them to nicotine addiction, lung damage, and higher risk of cancer."

This follows the ousting of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who also opposed the flavored vape policy. Two senior officials gone in rapid succession signals more than a routine policy disagreement.

How This Policy Actually Happened

Tobacco industry executives and lobbyists sat down with President Trump at a lunch in Jupiter, Florida, this month, according to NBC News and confirmed by a source familiar with the matter. They complained that barriers to selling flavored vapes were unfair. Trump called Kennedy and other top health officials directly to voice his displeasure.

Shortly after that phone call, the FDA moved.

What the FDA Actually Did

The agency opened a pathway for tobacco companies to sell flavored e-cigarettes. It issued the first-ever FDA authorization for fruit-flavored vapes. And it released draft guidance — reported first by The New York Times and analyzed in detail by STAT News — suggesting that vapes in flavors like coffee, mint, and cinnamon could now qualify for approval.

The draft guidance is open for public comment for 60 days and is not yet final policy. The FDA is still saying it will resist candy, dessert, and fruit flavors because they're especially attractive to kids. But it's drawing a new, looser line around "adult-oriented" flavors.

The Toxicity Problem

Sven Jordt, a professor at Duke University School of Medicine who researches tobacco products, told STAT News that cinnamon and clove are "among the most toxic flavor chemicals that have been identified in e-cigarettes." These are two of the exact flavors the new FDA guidance could greenlight.

Benjamin Chaffee, a professor at the University of California San Francisco Center for Tobacco Control Research, noted that manufacturers wanting approval would have to prove their product helps adult smokers quit AND that benefits to adults "outweigh the added risk to youth." His assessment: "that could be a difficult needle to thread."

The International Pediatric Association — a consortium of pediatric societies — stated last year that e-cigarettes have not proved significantly effective at getting people to stop smoking in the first place.

The entire justification for this policy shift rests on a public health benefit that the evidence doesn't clearly support, while authorizing flavors that a Duke professor calls among the most toxic in the category.

The MAHA Crack-Up

The MAHA movement is fracturing in public. Alex Clark, a health and wellness podcaster for Turning Point USA — a conservative, youth-focused organization — told NBC News the administration's support for flavored e-cigarettes "adds more fuel to the fire when it comes to stoking fears that MAHA moms have that special interest groups are running the White House."

That's a conservative commentator, affiliated with a Trump-aligned group, directly accusing the White House of being captured by industry. Most mainstream outlets treated it as a sidebar.

The MAHA coalition was built on the premise that this administration would take on corporate food and pharmaceutical interests to protect American kids. Flavored vapes marketed in ways that appeal to teenagers — greenlit after a private lunch with tobacco lobbyists — contradicts that premise.

The White House Response

White House spokesman Kush Desai issued a statement saying: "President Trump consistently pledged to expand access to vapes in light of an abundance of recent evidence finding that these products are beneficial for Americans trying to quit smoking. The only guiding factor behind the Trump administration's health policymaking is Gold Standard Science."

The statement offered no citations to the studies or researchers behind that "abundance of evidence."

What This Means for Regular People

Parents will feel this directly. The FDA just opened a door to flavors designed to make nicotine products more appealing. The officials who objected are gone.

For those who supported MAHA because they wanted someone fighting corporate influence over families' health, two senior officials have now resigned in protest of exactly that influence winning a policy fight.

For smokers who genuinely want to quit, the science on whether flavored vapes actually help is, per the International Pediatric Association, still unsettled.

The tobacco industry met with the president, made their request, and got it. Two officials who opposed the move are out.