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‘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
La violencia desatada y una profunda crisis económica, los grandes desafíos del próximo gobierno de Ecuador

Territorio del narcotráfico y el crimen organizado
Crisis económica y energética
Ecuador,Daniel Noboa,Narcotráfico
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How Mike Johnson rescued Trump’s tax agenda from jaws of likely defeat

When lawmakers arrived on Capitol Hill last Monday, House GOP leaders’ plans to sync up with the Senate on sweeping legislation to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda seemed an all-but-impossible task.
House fiscal hawks were furious with Senate Republicans for passing an amended version of the former’s budget framework, one that called for a significantly lower amount of mandatory spending cuts than the House’s initial plan.
By late Thursday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was celebrating victory in front of reporters after a narrow 216-to-214 vote.
«I told you not to doubt us,» a triumphant Johnson told the media. «We’re really grateful to have had the big victory on the floor just now. It was a big one, a very important one.»
HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS CHAIR URGES JOHNSON TO CHANGE COURSE ON SENATE VERSION OF TRUMP BUDGET BILL
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson shakes hands with President Donald Trump onstage at a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on Nov. 13, 2024 in Washington. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The hard-fought win came after long hours and late nights as House Republican leaders — and leaders in the Senate GOP as well — worked to persuade holdouts, while Trump and his aides worked those same critics from the sidelines.
White House aides were at House Republicans’ weekly conference meeting on Tuesday, a rare sight but not unexpected, given the importance of the coming vote.
But GOP lawmakers filed out of that meeting doubting whether Trump’s influence could help this time, after he played a key role in helping shepherd earlier critical bills across the finish line this year.
«I don’t see it happening,» a House Republican told Fox News Digital when asked whether Trump would be enough to sway critics.
Nevertheless, a select group of those holdouts were summoned to the White House alongside House GOP leaders on Wednesday afternoon, hours before the expected vote.
MEET THE TRUMP-PICKED LAWMAKERS GIVING SPEAKER JOHNSON A FULL HOUSE GOP CONFERENCE
Fox News Digital was told that Trump commanded the room for roughly 20 to 30 minutes, and told House conservatives he agreed with them on the need to significantly slash government spending.
Trump also communicated to holdouts that Senate leaders felt the same, but, like the House, were working on their own tight margins, Fox News Digital was told.
The president, meanwhile, has been concerned in particular with the looming debt limit deadline, Fox News Digital was told.
It’s one of the issues that Republicans are looking to tackle via the budget reconciliation process. By lowering the Senate’s passage threshold from 60 votes to 51, it allows the party controlling the House, Senate and White House to enact broad policy changes via one or two broad pieces of legislation.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks during a news conference following the Senate Republican policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In this case, Republicans are looking for some added funds for border security and defense and to raise the debt ceiling — while paring back spending on the former Biden administration’s green energy policies and in other sections of the federal government, likely including entitlement programs.
GOP lawmakers are also looking to extend Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the provisions of which expire at the end of this year. They will also need new funding for Trump’s efforts to eliminate taxes on tipped and overtime wages.
But first, Republicans wanted the House and Senate to pass identical frameworks setting the stage for filling those frameworks with actual legislative policy.
Whereas the House version calls for at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, the Senate mandated a floor of $4 billion — a wide gap to bridge.
The Wednesday-afternoon White House meeting did sway some holdouts, but far from enough.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., also met with House GOP critics of the bill for more than an hour on Wednesday evening ahead of the planned vote.
«He couldn’t have been more cordial and understanding in talking to us about what we needed to know. And honestly, he had some of the same concerns that we did,» Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital.
«You know, he’s got to get it over the finish line, and he had to make certain commitments. But he committed to us to work with us.»
Ultimately, however, plans to advance the measure that evening were hastily scrapped as an unrelated vote was held open for over an hour, leading to confusion and frustration on the House floor.
«He looked like he was in no better spot than he was at the beginning,» one House Republican said of that night.

Rep. Tim Burchett speaks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol. (Alex Wong)
Trump was not called to address the group during that huddle with holdouts, two sources in the room told Fox News Digital.
However, the president did have individual conversations with some holdouts on Wednesday and Thursday, one person said.
The Wednesday night failure gave way to a late night of negotiations involving both holdouts and House GOP leaders.
Two House GOP leadership aides told Fox News Digital that Johnson had huddled with Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and House GOP Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., until late Wednesday to figure out a path forward.
When they emerged shortly before midnight, they had settled on a plan — a televised promise by Johnson and Thune to put both leaders on the record committing to deep spending cuts.
SENATE GOP PUSHES TRUMP BUDGET FRAMEWORK THROUGH AFTER MARATHON VOTE SERIES
«I’m happy to tell you that this morning, I believe we have the votes to finally adopt the budget resolution so we can move forward on President Trump’s very important agenda for the American people,» Johnson said.
Thune added, «We are aligned with the House in terms of what their budget resolution outlined in terms of savings. The speaker has talked about $1.5 trillion. We have a lot of United States senators who believe in that as a minimum.»
A senior Senate GOP aide argued to Fox News Digital, «Absent Thune’s intervention, Mike Johnson would not have gotten this resolution through the House.»
But the speaker was also putting in his own long hours with holdouts.

Steve Scalise, House majority leader, speaks during Day 2 of the Republican National Convention (RNC), at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 16, 2024. (Reuters/Mike Segar)
The office of Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who ultimately voted to advance the framework, told Fox News Digital that critics were sent a memo by Johnson early on Thursday, assuring them that he was committed to deep spending cuts.
«The Senate amendment to H. Con. Res. 14 preserves untouched language from the original House-passed resolution, including the reconciliation instructions to House committees and Section 4001 — Adjustment for spending cuts of at least $2 trillion,» the memo said.
It referred to a measure in the House-passed framework that suggested funding toward tax cuts would be reduced by a corresponding amount if final spending cuts did not equal $2 trillion.
«This language reflects a critical principle — that deficit-increasing provisions of the final reconciliation bill are accompanied by concomitant spending cuts,» it said.
Then, as the vote was called around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, a final huddle between holdouts and leaders sealed the Republicans’ victory.
«At some point, it was heated. And then the speaker’s leadership team [House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.] made sure we were clarified on some issues which are very important to some of the members,» Burchett said.
«And then Steve Scalise, really batting cleanup, and he came in with the final with the final conclusion, which everybody agreed to pretty much. And then the speaker closed the deal.»

House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain leaves a meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on Feb. 28, 2023. (Tom Williams)
Burchett said he believed that Johnson had spoken to Trump separately at some point during that huddle.
A senior House GOP aide said McClain was also present for that meeting.
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Republicans clinched the win minutes after 11 a.m. on Thursday, with the GOP side of the House chamber erupting in applause.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., who helped lead the opposition, told reporters after the vote, «We made tremendous progress over the last two days in making certain that whatever we do on reconciliation, we don’t increase this country’s budget deficit.»
«We take the Moody report from two weeks ago pretty seriously, that you can’t have unpaid-for tax cuts, and we made progress in making, getting assurances both from the Senate and the House leadership that that’s not going to occur,» Harris said.
House Of Representatives,Mike Johnson,Donald Trump,Politics
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Bombardeo ruso en Ucrania deja 34 muertos y desata condenas globales de Estados Unidos y Europa

Un bombardeo ruso causó este domingo la muerte de al menos 34 personas, incluidos dos niños, y dejó 117 heridos en el centro de Sumi, ciudad del noreste ucraniano, en un ataque que provocó fuertes condenas de Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea.
“Creo que fue terrible. Y me dijeron que ellos cometieron un error. Sin embargo, creo que es algo horrible. Creo que toda la guerra es algo horrible”, expresó el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump desde el avión presidencial Air Force One.
Leé también: Mientras negocia con Trump el fin de la guerra en Ucrania, Putin llamó a reclutar a 160.000 soldados rusos
El ataque, ejecutado con misiles balísticos durante el Domingo de Ramos, en plena afluencia de personas, se convirtió en el más mortífero en meses en Ucrania, invadida por Rusia desde febrero de 2022.
También se produjo dos días después de la visita a Rusia de un emisario estadounidense, en el marco de la reanudación de los contactos bilaterales tras el regreso de Trump a la Casa Blanca.
“Rusia golpeó el centro de la ciudad con misiles balísticos. Justo cuando había mucha gente en la calle”, informaron los rescatistas ucranianos en redes sociales.
Según el último parte difundido a las 18H00 (15H00 GMT) por el servicio de emergencias ucraniano, se registraron 34 muertos, incluidos dos menores de edad, y 117 heridos, entre ellos 15 nenes.
El centro de la ciudad de Sumi, destruido tras un mortal ataque de misiles rusos. (Foto: AP).
Las autoridades locales difundieron imágenes de cuerpos tendidos en las calles, vehículos en llamas y civiles heridos corriendo para refugiarse. Además, decretaron tres días de luto oficial.
“Un día en que la gente va a la iglesia: Domingo de Ramos (…). Sólo los malnacidos pueden hacer esto”, reaccionó el presidente Volodimir Zelenski, en un mensaje publicado en Telegram.
“Sin una presión realmente fuerte, sin un apoyo adecuado a Ucrania, Rusia continuará llevando a cabo esta guerra”, advirtió, acusando a su par ruso, Vladimir Putin, de haber “ignorado la propuesta estadounidense de un alto el fuego total e incondicional”.
En una entrevista posterior con la televisión estadounidense CBS, Zelenski instó a Trump a visitar Ucrania “antes de cualquier tipo de negociación” para que vea con sus propios ojos “lo que hizo” Putin con su guerra.

Cuerpos de ucranianos muertos en el suelo tras un ataque de misiles rusos (Foto: Servicio de prensa del Comisario del Parlamento Ucraniano para los Derechos Humanos/AP).
Desde Bruselas, la jefa de la diplomacia europea, Kaja Kallas, calificó el bombardeo como “un ejemplo horrible de la intensificación de los ataques de Rusia mientras Ucrania aceptó una tregua”.
El secretario general de la ONU, Antonio Guterres, se mostró “profundamente alarmado y conmocionado” por el ataque.
El primer ministro británico, Keir Starmer, escribió en X que este ataque es “un recordatorio brutal del continuo baño de sangre perpetrado por Putin”.
El presidente francés, Emmanuel Macron, pidió “medidas fuertes” para imponer una tregua a Moscú, mientras que el líder conservador alemán, Friedrich Merz, sostuvo que fue “un acto pérfido (…) y un crimen de guerra grave”.
El ataque tuvo lugar tras el encuentro en San Petersburgo entre Putin y Steve Witkoff, emisario estadounidense que visitó Moscú como parte de las gestiones diplomáticas de Washington. Aunque Estados Unidos propuso en marzo una tregua de 30 días, Putin no se mostró convencido y la propuesta no se concretó.
Según Kiev y sus aliados, Rusia estaría alargando deliberadamente las negociaciones con el objetivo de ganar tiempo y aprovechar su superioridad militar en el frente.
La presión rusa no ha cedido en las últimas semanas. A inicios de abril, un ataque en Krivói Rog dejó 18 muertos, incluidos nueve niños, un hecho que conmocionó al país entero.
Sumi, ubicada cerca de la frontera rusa, ha sufrido una creciente presión militar desde que Moscú logró hacer retroceder a las fuerzas ucranianas en la región de Kursk. Aunque hasta ahora se había mantenido al margen de los combates más intensos del sur (Donetsk), las autoridades ucranianas alertan desde hace semanas sobre la posibilidad de una ofensiva rusa en la zona.
Leé también: Ecuador: Noboa le sacó una ventaja de 12 puntos a la candidata correísta y logró la reelección hasta 2029
El jueves pasado, Rusia reivindicó la toma de un pueblo en la región de Sumi, un avance poco frecuente en esta parte del noreste, de donde sus tropas se habían replegado en la primavera de 2022.
El comandante en jefe de las fuerzas armadas ucranianas, Oleksandr Sirski, aseguró el miércoles que las tropas rusas habían comenzado “hace algunos días” ofensivas en Sumi y en la vecina región de Járkov, también en el noreste del país.
bombardeo, Rusia, Ucrania
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