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."

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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 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."

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.

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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.  

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.

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."

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.

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.

• UK carmaker Jaguar Land Rover is pausing shipments to the US in April over US tariffs.
• President Donald Trump introduced a 25% levy on imported cars that came into effect on Thursday.
• Jaguar Land Rover said the US remained an important market.

British luxury automaker Jaguar Land Rover is halting shipments of its cars to the US this month as it navigates President Donald Trump's new 25% tariff on imported automobiles.

In a statement Saturday, a spokesperson for the company told Business Insider: "The USA is an important market for JLR's luxury brands. As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are enacting our short-term actions including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid- to longer-term plans."

The Times of London first reported the pause.

JLR said in a separate statement on Wednesday that its brands were "accustomed to changing market conditions" and that it was prioritizing "delivering for our clients around the world and addressing these new US trading terms."

The company, which employs almost 40,000 people across the world, is one of the UK's most iconic carmakers and has long been popular with celebrities in both Britain and the US. JLR's retail sales were up 21.7% to just over 430,000 vehicles in the fiscal year 2023 to 2024, including roughly 95,000 in North America, according to its annual report.

JLR's decision to pause US shipments follows a massive global stock market sell-off sparked by Trump's slew of tariffs, which came into force this week.

A baseline 10% tariff on trading partners came into effect on Saturday, while higher levies on some nations are set to take effect on April 9.

While Trump sees the duties as a means of bolstering domestic investment and "supercharging" the economy, many analysts are questioning the potential economic consequences.

• In my family we take turns preparing dinner, and that includes our teens.
• The kids are responsible for choosing the recipe and adding the ingredients to our shopping list.
• Having them involved helps my husband and I, but also sparks conversations with our kids.

Like many families, ours finds there often isn't enough time for everything — especially time to hang out with each other in between school, work, activities and other responsibilities.

In my family, cooking is one way we work around that.

Sometimes I cook, sometimes my husband cooks, and sometimes one or both of our kids makes dinner. Not only has it helped everyone learn useful life skills, it has given us much to talk about — whether it's seasonality of produce, the rising costs of some ingredients, or how to read nutrition labels.

My husband and I helped in the kitchen as kids

I know this isn't a novel approach; we know many families where kids are engaged in meal planning and prep, and there are plenty of kids' cooking classes, camps, and resources available online. For our family, we've enjoyed cooking this way for years and trying myriad types of foods — and it doesn't surprise us that studies back up the idea that engaging children in cooking is linked to improvements in their dietary habits.

My husband and I relate to this from when we were growing up. We were each responsible for cooking family dinners from time to time starting in grade school due to our parents being busy with work or graduate school. Talking about it now, I think we both gained confidence, a sense of responsibility, and some solid skills. We were proud of what we accomplished — even when the recipe didn't quite turn out as expected — and we felt prepared for when we'd be out of the house and would need to feed ourselves.

When we had kids, we wanted to teach them some of those lessons. Among the tools we used were kid-sized utensils, plastic plates and bowls, and "Pretend Soup," one of chef-author Mollie Katzen's cookbooks for children. I spoke with her years ago for a short vignette I was writing, and she explained how to make food accessible to young kids. That could mean putting ingredients on a surface at kid level where they can easily see them or engaging them in basic skills like mixing, using extra-large bowls until they get comfortable with it. It helps them feel useful and engaged with the process, she told me, and we found that to be true in our home.

They've taken over cooking

The foundation we provided at home, plus skills gleaned at Scout camping trips, cooking camps or informal "Chopped"-style contests over school breaks, gave my kids enough interest and know-how to want to help — and then take over — some of our dinner prep and cooking.

Grilled cheese, scrambled eggs, and simple salads were among their early dishes; now that they are teens, they often assign each other a cookbook to pick a recipe from each week. Sometimes it's a tried-and-true Betty Crocker cookbook, and other times it's a tome from chef and humanitarian José Andrés. Some recent meals they've made include turkey bolognese, spiced catfish sandwiches with Haitian pickled slaw, and gado gado — a traditional Indonesian salad that I'd never heard of until our son prepared and served it recently.

The kids are responsible for picking a recipe, adding ingredients we need to our shared grocery list app, choosing the day they'll cook, and then making it happen — with at least one adult nearby to answer questions, assist with large-blade appliances, or act as a sous chef when needed.

We adapt recipes to our tastes

No one in our house tends to follow recipes to the letter when they cook; I don't eat much meat so we often use a different protein in place of whatever the recipe lists. Our versions generally work — but my son tested that when he didn't know where to find white wine and used white wine vinegar instead. It gave the gnocchi soup he was making a little extra zing. And the pad thai that my daughter made one weeknight took well more than an hour even with time-saving modifications, so bedtimes were rapidly approaching as we sat down to dinner.

That pad thai recipe is one I've never tried to make, and getting to enjoy the resulting noodle dish illustrates one of the great benefits of having multiple chefs in the house. The kids appear undaunted by ingredients or preparation tasks. I skip some recipes because they look time consuming or use a lot of dishes, but my kids are willing to try those. We've enjoyed homemade pasta, sushi, soft pretzels, and filled croissants because they were interested in making those things and we knew we'd all be OK however they turned out. (And we always have peanut butter in the pantry in case of a culinary emergency.)

Other benefits for my husband and me include having time to finish up work meetings or do other things while dinner is being made, knowing that we're giving the kids time and space to contribute to the household in a way that they enjoy, and providing a springboard for discussions about bioengineered foods and buying locally.

In the gado gado recipe, which came from Katzen's well-known Moosewood Cookbook, she notes toward the top: "HAVE FUN WITH THIS!" And my kids do.

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