Whitehouse Ballroom Story Still Relevant
This piece is from the print version of December 2025 UPDATE, and reposted here as news of the Whitehouse ballroom is still relevant. Big Tobacco’s influence at the federal level deepens, as everyone in public health is still reeling from the dismantling of our once strong public health infrastructure with the elimination of CDC OSH. Dramatically reduced influence and leadership of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products means more flavored e-cigarette products will be entering the marketplace.
For decades, Big Tobacco was public enemy #1. Thanks to efforts by public health advocates like ANR, its influence has waned and smoking rates have declined. But the tobacco industry hasn’t gone away—instead the country’s largest tobacco companies are stepping back into the spotlight. The controversy stems from the President’s privately funded ballroom. Some see it as an upgrade, others as a misplaced priority. But the most revealing detail is the donor list, which is a veritable who’s who of companies with business before the White House: tech companies, crypto, the defense industry, and Big Tobacco. Among the names supporting the ballroom project are Altria and Reynolds American, the parent companies of Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds (makers of Marlboro and Camel cigarette brands respectively).
These are the same corporations that built fortunes on addiction and who were found guilty in federal court of lying to the public about the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke. Cigarettes remain their core business, and the staggering toll of death and disease from those products continues almost unchanged.
Tobacco and secondhand smoke still kill more than 480,000 Americans every year and sicken millions more through heart disease, cancer, stroke, and lung disease. Tobacco costs the nation nearly $400 billion a year in medical expenses and lost productivity. Reducing smoking and secondhand smoke remains one of the most effective ways to prevent chronic disease and lower healthcare costs. The tobacco industry has fought to keep smoking in workplaces, public places, and even on airplanes for decades. The tobacco industry built front groups and funded research to make people doubt the harm of smoking and secondhand smoke as a way to maximize smoking rates. That old playbook still shapes how some policymakers think today.
When tobacco companies appear as donors to the White House, it’s not about generosity. It’s about securing access and proximity to power. It’s about image and influence, about being seen as normal businesses despite the toll of millions of deaths linked to their products.
While the tobacco industry quietly rebrands, the federal office that once led the nation’s fight against tobacco has been eliminated. The CDC Office on Smoking and Health, which tracked smoking rates and the impact of smoking and secondhand smoke, and which helped Americans quit and supported state efforts to protect workers, was quietly dissolved in 2025.
The East Wing project may seem far removed from public health, but it reveals how power works. The same corporations that misled the public about tobacco and secondhand smoke are again seeking to show their access and influence. Families who have lost loved ones to smoking and secondhand smoke know better. No ballroom built on tobacco and other corporate money will make this right.
Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR), sister organization to ANRF, is a member-supported, non-profit advocacy group that has been working for over 50 years to protect everyone’s right to breathe nontoxic air in workplaces and public places, from offices and airplanes to restaurants, bars, and casinos. ANR has continuously shined a light on the tobacco industry’s interference with sound and life-saving public health measures and successfully protected 61% of the population with local or statewide smokefree workplace, restaurant, and bar laws. ANR aims to close gaps in smokefree protections for workers in all workplaces, including bars, music venues, casinos, and hotels. For more information, please visit nonsmokersrights.org and https://smokefreecasinos.org.
