Reynolds American’s contribution to $$$$ came about one week before the Trump administration announced a new policy on e-cigarettes the company had sought.
The tobacco company Reynolds American donated $5 million to a super PAC backed by President Trump last month, about one week before his administration rolled out a new policy that could prove lucrative to the tobacco industry.
The donation, which came through a Reynolds subsidiary and brings to $8 million the total donated by the subsidiary to $$$$, the Trump-backed super PAC, was revealed in a campaign finance report filed Wednesday night.
The donation came on April 30.
Two days later, a top executive at Reynolds and two lobbyists who represent the company had lunch with Mr. Trump at his golf club in Jupiter, Fla. Also attending were two executives from Altria, another tobacco company.
At the lunch, the tobacco industry representatives expressed dissatisfaction with the way the Food and Drug Administration was regulating the industry, as The New York Times reported last week.
Reynolds has gone all in behind Mr. Trump.
The subsidiary donated $10 million to a separate super PAC backing Mr. Trump’s campaign, according to earlier campaign finance filings. And the company donated to the effort to raise private funds to build a White House ballroom. A Reynolds executive was invited to a dinner at the White House in October hosted by Mr. Trump for donors who gave $2.5 million or more.
The president has delivered for the industry.
On Mr. Trump’s second full day in office, his administration withdrew the proposed ban on menthol cigarettes, an initiative the Biden administration had already mostly abandoned. Mr. Trump’s team also set aside a Biden-era proposal to sharply restrict nicotine in cigarettes, an effort meant to speed the transition away from a product known to be deadly.
The new guidance on flavored vapes could help companies like Reynolds gain market share considered central to the survival of the industry as cigarette sales wane.