FDA weighs barring millions more Geek Bar vapes held in Chicago
The White House ordered federal officials late this summer to approve the release of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of detained illegal Chinese vapes into the U.S. market after conversations with Trump administration political adviser Chris LaCivita and his son, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. The move came amid a broader loosening of tobacco regulations during President Trump’s second term that has produced more favorable treatment for the industry.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in Chicago had detained the shipments of Geek Bar vapes earlier this year, and officials believed at least some of the items were misdeclared as another product, people familiar said. The Food and Drug Administration has not authorized any vape from Geek Bar, a Chinese manufacturer, for sale in the United States, and it is illegal to sell unauthorized tobacco products in the country.
After the conversations, White House officials in late August made clear to FDA officials that they needed to sign off on letting the detained shipments into the country, people familiar said. Customs officials subsequently released the vapes into the U.S. market, federal health officials were told.
LaCivita, Trump’s 2024 co-campaign manager and a close associate of the president, said he reached out to top White House aides to tell them that Geek Bar’s U.S. importer, New York-based Hillfield, was “onshoring” by making a $1 billion investment in a U.S. manufacturing facility. He said his role was limited to offering Hillfield advice on aligning its business strategy with the administration’s priorities, and that he did not discuss detained vapes with the White House. “The notion that I had the ability to direct anyone in government to do anything is laughable and categorically false,” LaCivita said.
His son, Chris LaCivita Jr., a registered lobbyist for Hillfield, said he was also in touch with White House and other federal officials to advocate for letting the company’s vapes onto the market. The younger LaCivita said Hillfield was following the rules and working with FDA officials to make sure its products were not improperly delayed at the border, that none of its shipments were misdeclared, and that they qualify for entry under the carve-out the administration created earlier this year.
Hillfield managing partner Ben Zhang said some of the company’s first shipments earlier this year were held and that customs and FDA officials cleared some of them for release. Zhang said Hillfield followed rules for imports and has paid more than $30 million in tariffs. Its approach, he said, “will help eliminate the counterfeit and deceptively imported products that unfortunately flood the market.”
White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster said the administration is working to keep nicotine out of the hands of children and counterfeit vapes off the streets while expanding access to more authorized products for adults. “The only special interest guiding President Trump’s decision-making is the best interest of the American people,” she said. A CBP spokeswoman declined to answer specific questions about the detained shipments but said the agency has worked to prevent unregulated nicotine products from reaching Americans.
The releases marked a turn in the administration’s handling of unapproved Chinese vapes. The first Trump administration restricted flavored vapes of almost all sorts over concerns about their effects on youth, and as recently as last year led an operation seizing millions of dollars of illegal Chinese vapes. In September 2025, administration officials publicized the seizure of $86.5 million of illegal e-cigarettes, most of them from China, in an operation in Chicago carried out by customs, FDA and Justice Department officials. “We will never allow foreign actors to threaten the health of America’s children,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement at the time.
After that raid, then-White House deputy chief of staff James Blair instructed federal officials to back off such large-scale enforcement efforts, people familiar said, and Kennedy and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi abandoned plans for more raids in North Carolina, Florida and several other states. Blair said in a statement that he was not privy to specific enforcement action plans and did not give any specific instructions about the enforcement.
American tobacco companies with legal products, along with public health activists, have urged the federal government to step up enforcement against the unapproved Chinese vapes that have for years dominated the market and circulate through unofficial channels. U.S. vaping policy has frustrated domestic tobacco companies that do not want overseas competitors taking their market share. The administration’s policy has moved in the other direction. Earlier this year, Trump dined with Reynolds American executives at his Jupiter, Fla., golf course, where they complained that the FDA had not approved vaping flavors. In May, the FDA loosened vape regulations, saying it would not enforce laws against certain unauthorized vapes and nicotine pouches whose manufacturers had completed initial steps to apply to sell their products legally, even without a full scientific review. The agency said it would continue to enforce laws against products that appeal to children, such as those with cartoon figures or devices shaped like toys.
Since the summer, Hillfield representatives, including the younger LaCivita, have argued to federal officials that their Geek Bar products meet the May policy’s criteria for nonenforcement and should be allowed into the country, while FDA officials have said most Geek Bar products do not meet that criteria, people familiar said. The firm the younger LaCivita works for, Checkmate Government Relations, lobbied the FDA and the White House on vape policy and had conversations about why products were being held up, said the firm’s managing partner, Ches McDowell. Federal lobbying disclosures show Hillfield has paid Checkmate $860,000 since the end of 2025.
McDowell said that throughout the summer, FDA leaders told the firm Hillfield was “fine to import,” and that Hillfield had paid tariffs and declared everything properly. “President Trump made it clear that access to safe, flavored vapes is an administration priority,” McDowell said. “Our client checks all the boxes.”
Since September, the FDA has had its border patrol partners hold on to hundreds more Hillfield shipments in Chicago, holding millions of vapes, some of which the agency believes do not qualify for lenient treatment, people familiar said. The agency is weighing whether to bar those products’ entry, a decision that would leave Hillfield to destroy the vapes or bear the expense of shipping them back to Asia. Mitch Zeller, a former top tobacco official at the FDA, said the agency on its own does not have the authority to destroy the products, though customs officials do. Shipments of illegal vapes are often falsely declared to be other products, and lying to customs officials about shipments is a crime, said Tom Lesnak, a former special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who consults on illicit tobacco issues. Seized vapes are typically later destroyed, Lesnak said.
Geek Bar did not respond to requests for comment. Its brightly colored vapes, which are popular with young people, remain widely available at retailers and smoke shops as regulators have been unable to stem the tide of unlawful imports. A 2024 analysis by the Truth Initiative, a public health nonprofit, found that 86% of e-cigarette retail sales in the U.S. were for illegal products, and researchers examining data from a 2025 federal survey of more than 20,000 youth found that of those currently using e-cigarettes, 64% used Geek Bar.
Hillfield set up operations in Delaware last year to serve as Geek Bar’s official U.S. importer, following rules and paying tariffs in anticipation that the administration would change its policy to allow more vapes onto the market, a person familiar with the company said. Since the summer, Hillfield has attempted to import roughly 10 to 12 million vapes, handling all the shipments similarly, the person said, and uneven enforcement across ports was one issue Checkmate was hired to address. Zhang said about 50% of the company’s shipments made it into the U.S. this summer, before the FDA began holding all of its shipments this fall.