INTERNACIONAL
‘Deep ties to the CCP’: Meet the vaping lobbyist ramping up pressure on Trump to save ‘illicit’ vape industry
FIRST ON FOX: A top vaping lobbyist, whose group worked closely with the Trump campaign last year and is now ramping up pressure on the Trump administration to «uphold their promise to save the flavored vaping industry,» has extensive ties to the Chinese Communist Party, a Fox News Digital review found.
Tony Abboud, the Illinois-based executive director of the Vapor Technology Association, made several smaller donations to pro-Trump GOP Senate candidates ahead of the 2024 election and met with then-candidate Donald Trump weeks before the election in a push to protect the vaping industry.
However, his past ties to the Democratic Party and CCP are setting off alarm bells with a political operative close to the Trump administration and a top Republican Congressional leadership aide as Abboud’s group ramps up pressure on the Trump administration and lobbies several states to oppose directory bills, which would crack down on Chinese vape companies.
«Tony Abboud and Vapor Technology Association have deep ties to the CCP and Never-Trumpers,» a person close to the Trump administration told Fox News Digital. «This goes against everything President Trump stands for, which is loyalty and reining in CCP influence, especially when it comes to illicit drugs pouring across the border.»
21,000% SPIKE IN MA VAPE SEIZURES THROWS CIGARETTE BAN INTO QUESTION, EX-ATF OFFICIAL SAYS
Tony Abboud and other members of the Global Vape Alliance toast each other at 2023 InterTabac trade show in Germany (Left) and (Right) Tony Abboud and then-presidential candidate Donald Trump pose for photo after a private meeting weeks before the 2024 election. (Global Vape Alliance/Vapor Technology Association X screenshot)
Abboud, who previously donated thousands between Obama’s Senate campaign and failed House campaign, among other Democrats, and his vaping group have a close relationship with the Electronic Cigarette Industry Committee of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce (ECCC), an entity of the CCP.
Abboud’s VTA and the ECCC previously had an informal relationship but officially inked an official partnership together in late 2023, forming the Global Vape Alliance, which includes the UK Vaping Industry Association and the Independent European Vape Alliance. This alliance led to cooperation between the different entities, which entails sharing «information and strategies for best practices to educate and guide member companies on existing laws, regulations and industry standards.»
«The Alliance will share strategies for the promotion of the healthy development of the global vaping industry, and as a unified voice for the industry, will look to empower their member companies by promoting the sophistication, professionalism, and importance of the industry,» the declaration continued.
«VTA–like Temu, Shein, and TikTok–is well known for putting the interests of Chinese companies ahead of Americans,» a top Republican Congressional leadership aide warned in a statement to Fox News Digital. «No Hill Republicans are take their lobbying seriously and they should be ashamed for lobbying for interests connected to the Chinese Communist Party. American kids deserve a lot better.»
However, a senior adviser to the 2024 Trump campaign dismissed criticism of the group and Abboud, telling Fox News Digital that the «idea that VTA is an anti-Trump group is downright dishonest and utterly laughable.»
«Not only did they support President Trump’s re-election financially, but they also worked closely with the Trump campaign on a get-out-the-vote program targeting pro-vaping voters in support of the President in all the battleground states,» the former senior adviser said. «Their GOTV operation was so robust that it didn’t just extend to the President himself, but it was also used to support Trump-endorsed MAGA Senate candidates like Bernie Moreno in Ohio.»
President Donald Trump has repeatedly defended national security advisor Mike Waltz amid fallout over the Signal group chat. (Donald Trump 2024 campaign)
The ECCC, which partners with Abboud’s group, was established in Shenzhen, China, in January 2017 and operates under the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce (CECC), which is registered with the CCP’s Ministry of Civil Affairs of P. R. China.
A Fox News Digital review found that some of the top leaders of the CECC are former high-ranking members of the CCP, which includes a former member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, a former Vice Premier of the State Council, and a former vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the «key mechanism for multi-party cooperation and political consultation» under the leadership of the CCP, according to the CPPCC website.
FIVE-FIGURE AD BUY URGES STATES TO CRACK DOWN AS CHINA FLOODS MARKET WITH ILLICIT VAPES: ‘TRUMP WAS RIGHT’
As the executive director of VTA, Abboud has met with Ao Weinuo, the Secretary-General of the ECCC, several times over the years and is featured in several photos with Abboud.
In a batch of photos from the 2023 InterTabac trade show in Germany, which is where the Global Vape Alliance was officially announced, Weinuo and Abboud posed together for several photographs, including one where the pair and a couple other guys from the GVA toasted each other with their drinks. During the meeting portion of the event, Weinuo and Abboud were also on the same panel that appeared to be going after the Biden administration’s FDA for feeding a «false narrative.»
That same year, Weinuo and the ECCC members participated in a team-building outing with the theme of «Seeking Red Footprints and Drawing Strength for Progress.» In the background of the photo, which included Abboud’s business partner, the hammer and sickle CCP emblem was visible.
In a promotional video that ECCC posted on Tencent in 2021, ECCC emphasized their goals for Chinese domination and price control in the vaping market, saying, «China has the pricing power» and «influence,» according to English subtitles provided by ECCC.
Weinuo and the ECCC members participated in a team-building outing with the theme of «Seeking Red Footprints and Drawing Strength for Progress.» (Electronic Cigarette Industry Committee of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce (ECCC).)
When pressed for comment on VTA’s ties to China and the CCP, Abboud did not address them and instead talked about how he was a «former Democrat who became a Republican because of President Trump» and that «Joe Biden spent 4 years attempting to shut down and bankrupt American vape companies across the country and President Trump is the only person we trust to reverse Biden’s anti-vaping policies and save our industry.»
The political operative close to the Trump administration pushed back, pointing to a Linkedin post from Abboud’s group, which showed Abboud networking with Democrats, including then-DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, at the 2024 DNC Convention. The post said that VTA sponsored events for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Choose Atlanta and the Democratic Party of Virginia.
«I’m even more proud that VTA mobilized 360,000 voters to help overwhelmingly return President Trump to the White House because we know that after years of failed Democratic leadership, he is the champion our industry desperately needs,» continued Abboud, who along with VTA, also attended the RNC Convention and moderated a fireside chat. «The brazen attempts to distort our fight to save this industry are nothing more than coordinated attacks from competitors in the tobacco industry who are working with radical leftwingers like Letitia James and would stand to benefit financially from destroying American vape companies nationwide.»
«That would ultimately mean the loss of billions of U.S. tax revenue, hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and tens of thousands of small businesses across this great country,» he concluded.
In December 2023, Abboud traveled to China and participated in ECCC’s first «International Key Buyers Exchange Meeting» in Shenzhen, which included Weinuo as one of the leaders, according to photos reviewed by Fox News Digital.
According to a press release, «The special committee gave full play to its international influence and ‘brought in’ high-quality overseas wholesalers and brand owners, aiming to connect member companies with overseas resources and channels, and help Chinese e-cigarette products sell better in the international market.»
Abboud would then partner with Weinuo and ECCC a few months later in February 2024 at the Total Product Expo in Las Vegas. The expo was aimed at helping China gain greater access to the U.S. market and attracted more than 600 companies from around the world, including more than 100 exhibitors from China. A press release highlighting the event shows several photos of Abboud and Weinuo together as they hosted an after-party for the crowded event.
Tony Abboud (second from left) poses with Ao Weinuo (center), the Secretary-General of the ECCC, and others at Total Product Expo in Las Vegas in February 2024. (Electronic Cigarette Industry Committee of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce (ECCC).)
A person familiar with the inner workings of Abboud’s VTA downplayed concerns about the group’s ties to China and the CCP, telling Fox News Digital that «Every tobacco company in the industry has their own manufacturing in China» and that the «biggest tobacco companies also have joint ventures directly with the Chinese tobacco monopoly.» The person went on to emphasize that the Global Vape Alliance is engaged «against the black market» and is focusing «its joint efforts on combating the illegal trade in e-cigarettes,» among other initiatives.
In September 2024, Weinuo was invited to deliver remarks on behalf of ECCC at the New Tobacco (E-cigarette) Forum at the New Approaches Summit in New York City, which Abboud also attended. An ECCC press release on the event touts Weinuo as the «first representative of the Chinese e-cigarette industry to participate in the forum in history» and said the «ECCC delegation has attracted much attention at this forum.»
Tony Abboud (Center) poses with Ao Weinuo (Center Right), the Secretary-General of the ECCC, and others at the New Tobacco (E-cigarette) Forum in New York City in September 2024. (Electronic Cigarette Industry Committee of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce (ECCC).)
The press release went on to say that the «United States has the world’s largest and most influential benchmark market» and that the «ECCC delegation’s participation in this forum is of great significance.»
«It not only uses the international platform to send out a positive voice for the industry and establish a good image of Chinese e-cigarette products in the world, but also demonstrates the ECCC’s far-reaching collaborative work ability and influence in the world as the organization of Chinese e-cigarette companies,» the press release continued, highlighting that multiple current and former leaders from the World Health Organization were in attendance. «It is a concrete action to ‘tell the Chinese story well to the outside world.’»
In December 2024, Abboud visited ECCC in China for supplier and vendor conversations, where he received a «thank you prize for speaking,» according to an individual familiar with the event. A press release highlights how «more than 30 internationally renowned wholesalers and channel dealers from 10 countries and regions, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, France, Canada, Spain, Romania» visited ECCC as an international delegation to «accelerate the resource matching and docking of Chinese and foreign electronic cigarettes.»
In addition to Abboud, multiple people on the board of directors for his VTA have ties to China, including Magellan and Demand Vape owner Jon Glauser, who said in a 2023 deposition that he has a «good relationship with every manufacturer over» in China and that he has «spent quite a bit of time in Shenzhen, China, over the years,» noting that this is «where 99 percent of e-cigarettes are made.»
«We form a relationship with them, buy it from them either as a master distributor or distributor,» he added.
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Geoff Habicht is another member of VTA’s board of directors and serves as the CEO of Mi-Pod, an Arizona-based company that imports numerous vape juices from China.
Mi-Pod was recently the subject of a letter from the ranking Democratic member of the House Committee Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party for importing vape products that were banned for domestic sale in China and were the subject of safety concern in the United States.
In addition to the board of directors, several vape companies that are included in VTA’s membership, which range from $500 to $200,000 membership levels to join, are Chinese companies, including VooPoo, which has donated at least $100,000 to be a member of VTA, according to its website.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
China,Donald Trump,Joe Biden
INTERNACIONAL
Trump says Harvard should lose its tax exempt status, be treated as ‘political entity’ amid funding dispute
President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that Harvard University should lose its tax-exempt status and be considered a «political entity,» a day after his administration pulled $2.2 billion in funding from the Ivy League school.
«Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’» Trump wrote on TRUTH Social.
«Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!» the president added.
TRUMP ADMIN SLASHES OVER $2.2B IN FUNDING TO HARVARD AFTER SCHOOL DEFIES DEMANDS
Protesters gather outside Harvard University to show their disapproval of actions taken under the Trump administration on April 1, 2025. (Brett Phelps/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
The Trump administration on Monday said it was freezing more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University after the institution refused to comply with a set of terms set forth by the Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services and the General Services Administration last week.
Framed as «an expanding list of demands» by Harvard’s leadership, the administration asked the university to make changes to adhere to «merit-based» hiring and admissions practices and reform its recruitment of international students to «prevent admitting students hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, including students supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism.»
Other requested reforms included ensuring «viewpoint diversity in admissions and hiring,» changing programs with «egregious records of antisemitism or other bias,» and discontinuing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and initiatives.
In an April 11 letter to Harvard leadership, Trump administration officials said that U.S. government «investment is not entitlement» and «depends on Harvard upholding federal civil rights laws, and it only makes sense if Harvard fosters the kind of environment that produces intellectual creativity and scholarly rigor, both of which are antithetical to ideological capture.»
President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 10, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
In a statement on Monday, Harvard University President Alan Garber said the terms of agreement make «clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner.»
HARVARD WON’T COMPLY WITH TRUMP ADMIN’S DEMANDS AMID THREATS OF CUTTING FEDERAL FUNDING
«Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the intellectual conditions at Harvard,» Garber wrote.
He argued the terms required an «audit» of the student body, faculty and staff «viewpoints» and to reduce the power of certain students, faculty, and administrators «targeted because of their ideological views.»
Protesters gather outside Harvard University on April 1, 2025. (Brett Phelps/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
«No government – regardless of which party is in power – should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,» Garber wrote.
Harvard’s response was praised by Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, while conservatives mocked the Ivy League school’s outrage given its $53.2 billion endowment.
«There is another way: Refuse taxpayer money,» Hillsdale College, a private Christian institution in Michigan, posted on X.
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«Time to defund,» Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, wrote on X. «And tax that $50 billion endowment.»
Richard Grenell, a longtime Trump ally who served in multiple administration roles, had a message to Harvard: «Don’t ask for taxpayer money if you don’t want taxpayer strings.»
«You’ve ruined my degree with your far left activism,» Grenell wrote. «As a Harvard graduate, I support the Federal government enforcing laws that you violate.»
US Education,Donald Trump,Trump’s First 100 Days,Antisemitism Exposed,College
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La ley del Primer Paso
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The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it has killed a top Hamas leader responsible for arming terrorists with weapons used to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops.
Muhammad al-‘Ajlah, the commander of Hamas’ Shejaiya battalion, was taken out in a «precise strike» on Sunday, the IDF said Tuesday.
The Shejaiya battalion is a military unit within Hamas’s armed wing that operates primarily in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, which has historically been a stronghold for Hamas and a focal point of intense fighting during Israeli military operations.
Muhammad al-‘Ajlah, the commander of Hamas’ Shejaiya battalion, taken out in a «precise strike» on Sunday, the IDF said Tuesday. (IDF)
WITH TRUMP’S BACKING ISRAEL PUSHES DEEPER INTO GAZA AS PRESSURE BUILDS FOR HOSTAGE DEAL
Al-‘Ajlah is the fifth commander of the Shejaiya battalion to be eliminated since the beginning of the war and the third since the start of the renewed operations in Gaza, the IDF said.
«Muhammad al-‘Ajlah served as the commander of a combat support company in the Shejaiya battalion throughout the war and was eliminated in a precise strike on Sunday night,» the IDF said in a statement Tuesday.
«Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including issuing advanced warnings to civilians, precise munitions, and aerial surveillance.»
The top Hamas leaders killed by Israel during the war. (IDF)
ISRAEL LAUNCHES NEW GROUND OPERATION IN GAZA
The Shejaiya battalion has been known to use urban guerrilla warfare, tunnels, IEDs and rocket launches as part of its operations, according to the IDF and reports.
In October, Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar was killed during an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, with chilling video capturing his final moments.
Hamas’ top military commander, Mohammad Deif, was killed during a strike in July 2024. Deif initiated, planned and executed the October 7th terror attacks along with Sinwar, according to the IDF.
The killing of al-‘Ajlah on Sunday comes amid a resumption of the war on March 18 following a two-month ceasefire.
The latest round of talks on Monday in Cairo to restore the ceasefire and free Israeli hostages ended with no apparent breakthrough, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said.
Emaciated Israeli hostages, from left to the right, Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, who were held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, are taken by terrorists to a stage before being handed over to the Red Cross in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Feb. 8, 2025. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Hamas insists Israel commit to ending the war and pull out its forces from the Gaza Strip as agreed in the three-phase ceasefire accord that went into effect in late January.
Israel has said it will not end the war unless Hamas is eliminated and returns the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
Israel says that there are still 59 hostages in captivity, of whom Israel believes 35 are dead. Thirty-three hostages were released during the latest ceasefire; 251 were initially captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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