Tobacco industry is largest donor to Donald Trump's campaign

The release of Federal Election Commission records shows that a subsidiary of a tobacco company made the largest corporate donation to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. These combined donations are ten times larger than the largest corporate donation to Kamala Harris’ campaign. The tobacco industry’s support for the new president of the United States could have a direct impact on the regulation of tobacco and nicotine products.

The company in question is RAI Services Co., a subsidiary of Reynolds American, the maker of Lucky Strike, Camel, Pal Mall, Newport and Natural American Spirit. In total, RAI Services Co.'s donation to the Make America Great Again super PAC is $10 million.[1].

Ten million dollars to support Trump and hope for a non-ban on menthol

According to the Washington Post, Reynolds' financial support for candidate Trump was proposed by Brian Ballard, a lobbyist for the manufacturer close to the new American president. Although the latter has been able to publicly disavow smoking, considering smoking to be "horrible", Donald Trump has been identified by the tobacco industry as the best option to defend its interests, and in particular to avoid a possible ban on menthol cigarettes. Although this provision was one of Joe Biden's flagship measures, it has been rejected multiple times, and could be definitively buried with the arrival of the Republicans in power. Overall, the documents of the Federal Election Commission show that the tobacco industry's donations have been directed mainly to the Republican camp.

Various scientific studies highlight that conservative policy makers tend to be less inclined to implement tobacco control policies. This phenomenon can be explained in particular by the differences in ideological paradigm between conservatives and progressives, the former considering smoking as a freedom and an individual problem, while being attached to the right of the private sector to assert its interests. As a result, a longitudinal study conducted in the United States between 1981 and 2011 shows that states controlled by Republicans are less likely to implement tax increases on tobacco products[2].

A campaign massively financed by billionaires

For her part, Kamala Harris has received limited support from businesses. According to Federal Election Commission documents, the Democratic candidate has not received any corporate donations of more than $1 million. However, the documents report a $10 million donation from Geosor Corporation, a company owned by George Soros. However, these corporate donations, on both the Republican and Democratic sides, represent only a small portion of all campaign donations. Indeed, total donations to support Kamala Harris' campaign totaled $1.7 billion, compared to $825 million for Donald Trump. In particular, many billionaires, including business leaders, have increased their donations to their candidate. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has given more than $200 million of his personal fortune to Donald Trump's campaign. The latter was also supported by the founders of a shipping company (10 million), by the owner of half of Las Vegas Sands, a casino company (100 million), and by Kelcy Warren, head of an oil company. The founder of Linkedin, for his part, made a donation of twelve million euros in favor of the Democratic candidate, while Kamala Harris' campaign was financed to the tune of seven million dollars by the president of Netflix.

FT

[1] Forbes, This Tobacco Giant Was The Biggest Corporate Donor To The 2024 Presidential Race, 12/27/2024, (accessed 12/30/2024)

[2] Golden SD, Ribisl KM, Perreira KM. Economic and political influence on tobacco tax rates: a nationwide analysis of 31 years of state data. Am J Public Health. 2014 Feb;104(2):350-7. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301537. Epub 2013 Dec 12. PMID: 24328667; PMCID: PMC3935682.