RFK Jr.'s Top Spokesman Quits Over Vape Approvals as Tobacco Money Trail Comes Into Focus

The Resignations Keep Coming

Marty Makary was just the first domino.

Rich Danker, the top communications spokesman for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., resigned this week in direct protest over the new flavored vaping policy, according to the New York Times. In a letter addressed to President Trump himself, Danker wrote that approving flavored e-cigarettes would enhance their appeal to children.

Two senior health officials from opposite political backgrounds have walked out the door over the same policy in the same week.

The Money Trail the NYT Dug Up

The New York Times published a detailed breakdown of tobacco industry contributions flowing into Trump-affiliated political groups in the lead-up to the policy shift. The Times framed it as the tobacco industry "securing a lucrative win" by filling Trump's groups' coffers. The specific dollar amounts and donor names are in the Times reporting.

The framing deserves scrutiny. The Times leans left, and "tobacco industry wins because of donations" is a clean, villain-friendly narrative. But the money connections appear to be real and documented — not editorial invention. When cash flows to a politician and policy follows, that warrants reporting regardless of which outlet breaks it.

Republicans AND Democrats take tobacco and pharma money. This isn't a partisan scandal. It's a Washington-as-usual scandal.

What Makary Actually Got Wrong — And Right

Reason magazine — leaning center-right — published a detailed breakdown of Makary's own claims about youth vaping that simply don't hold up to the data.

At a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing in May 2025, Makary implied that 50 percent of students at some high schools are "addicted" to vaping products. The actual number from the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) for 2024: 7.8 percent of high school students reported past-30-day e-cigarette use. That's down from 10 percent in 2023, and down roughly 72 percent from the 2019 peak of 27.5 percent.

Makary's "50 percent" framing is more than six times the actual nationwide past-month use rate. He never acknowledged the downward trend at all.

Makary inflated the numbers. His panic wasn't fully grounded in current data.

But that doesn't automatically mean the administration's policy reversal was driven by science rather than donor relationships. Both things can be true: Makary overstated the youth vaping crisis, AND Trump reversed course because tobacco companies wrote checks.

The Specific Products That Triggered This

The FDA approved marketing for electronic nicotine delivery systems made by Glas, a Los Angeles-based company, according to Reason magazine. The approved pods: Classic Menthol, Fresh Menthol, Gold, and Sapphire. Glas devices incorporate age verification technology — a feature the FDA explicitly noted in its authorization.

The left-leaning coverage largely glosses over the age verification component. The products that triggered Makary's resignation weren't just flavored candy vapes handed to teenagers. They were products with built-in safeguards that the FDA's own scientific review cleared.

What Mainstream Coverage Is Getting Wrong

Left-leaning outlets — primarily the NYT — are running this as a straightforward "Big Tobacco buys a policy" story. Clean villain, clear victim, done.

Right-leaning and libertarian outlets are running it as "FDA bureaucrat ignores data and gets overruled." Also clean. Also incomplete.

Neither framing is the full story.

A regulator overstated the youth vaping threat using inflated numbers. The products he blocked had age verification safeguards. The administration reversing his decision received substantial tobacco industry money. All of that is true simultaneously.

The FDA is now leaderless in the middle of a broader agency restructuring under DOGE pressure, according to Axios, which adds genuine regulatory uncertainty on top of everything else.

RFK Jr.'s Position Is Now Incoherent

This puts Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in an impossible spot.

Kennedy built his entire brand on fighting corporate influence over health policy. His top spokesman just quit because the administration he serves did exactly what Kennedy spent decades crusading against — let industry money shape a health decision.

Kennedy has not publicly resigned or broken with Trump over this.

What This Means for Regular People

If you're a smoker or former smoker who switched to vaping to reduce harm, this week's approvals may expand your legal product options.

If you're a parent worried about your teenager, the data says underage vaping is already falling sharply — but the policy debate is now being conducted by an industry-influenced White House, a leaderless FDA, and officials walking out the door.

The regulatory process is compromised. And that should concern everyone, regardless of where you land on the vaping debate itself.