{
  "id": 581970,
  "title": "USA: Eight times as profitable as cigarettes: How Trump is turning nicotine pouches into a billion-dollar business",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/11/usa-achtmal-so-profitabel-wie-zigaretten-wie-trump-den-nikotinbeutel",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-11T16:28:05.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Handelsblatt",
    "slug": "handelsblatt",
    "url": "https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/handel-konsumgueter/usa-wie-trump-den-nikotinbeutel-zum-milliardengeschaeft-macht/100245625.html"
  },
  "original_language": "de",
  "account": "A soldier jumps out of the plane, and while still falling, he pushes a nicotine pouch under his lip. With this TikTok video, the White House recently celebrated a new factory of US tobacco company Philip Morris International (PMI). General Dan Caine, the highest-ranking soldier in the US, can be heard saying that during the war against Iran, American troops consumed more than 3.6 million liters of coffee and two million energy drinks - and \"a lot of nicotine\". For a total of $1.2 billion, Philip Morris has built a plant in Colorado where nicotine pouches are now mass-produced. The tobacco-free cigarette alternative Zyn is the centerpiece of the company's transformation. The company achieved sales of more than $11 billion for the first time in the second quarter, driven primarily by the international business with smoke-free products.\n\nWashington is helping significantly: since the end of June, some pouches can be advertised in the US as less harmful than cigarettes - despite protests from some health associations. While sales are effectively banned in Germany, Washington is making it easier for the industry to enter the market. The lax regulation not only suits the interests of tobacco companies - it also fits with a US government that prides itself on \"made in America\" and billion-dollar investments.\n\nWhen announcing the investment in 2024, Philip Morris had initially planned to spend $600 million on the plant. By 2028, the company now plans to invest a total of twice that amount, including additional production capacity and the expansion of the site. The investment \"strengthens our supply chain and improves our ability to meet the growing demand in the United States and worldwide,\" says US CEO Stacey Kennedy.\n\nNicotine pouches are more lucrative than cigarettes. While the desire for cigarettes is noticeably declining, demand for nicotine pouches has risen rapidly in recent years. Monthly sales have more than tripled since early 2023 - to over half a billion dollars in August 2025 alone, according to the US data project \"Monitoring Tobacco Product Use\". The change is paying off for the companies. According to estimates by Goldman Sachs, one Zyn pouch generates eight times the gross profit of a cigarette.\n\nAt the same time, the US nicotine market is expected to grow to around $67 billion by 2035, with pouches accounting for $11 billion - the second-largest category, just behind e-cigarettes. \"We expect smoke-free products to become the most important driver of industry profit,\" says Goldman analyst Bonnie Herzog.\n\nIn the US, this trend can be seen everywhere. The pouch is becoming a popular party accessory, and in retail, the cans are moving to the front of the shelf. The pouches have a \"more than twice as high profit margin as traditional cigarettes,\" explained Darren Rebelez, CEO of the retail chain Casey's, to analysts.\n\nThe boom is also driven by enthusiasm in the camp of US President Donald Trump, where the pouch has become a political identification symbol. The former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson promoted it as a strong performance enhancer for the office, and Health Minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is known to be a consumer.\n\nWhen Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer called for stricter regulation, some Republicans called for a \"Zynsurrection\" - a term coined from Zyn and \"insurrection\", the English word for uprising. They loudly defended the product as a symbol against government paternalism.\n\nWashington is also supporting the rise of nicotine pouches in other ways: in May of this year, the FDA announced that it would not prioritize enforcement against the sale of certain nicotine pouches and e-cigarettes with ongoing approval processes. Trump appears to personally believe in the big business of the industry. His financial disclosure shows that he held Philip Morris shares worth up to $1.64 million.\n\nThe industry is also one of the major political donors in Washington. Since the end of 2023, more than $20 million has flowed from tobacco industry companies to the Trump-affiliated Super PAC MAGA Inc., a political committee that can collect unlimited donations, according to an evaluation of official campaign finance data by the non-profit health news project KFF Health News. Alone, almost four million dollars were reportedly donated by the industry for Trump's inauguration.\n\nA connection between the donations and the relaxed regulation cannot be proven. US transparency organizations such as Crew speak of a \"corrosive problem in the campaign finance system\".\n\n\"It's impossible to make a definitive statement about the role of money without direct evidence of a link between the two,\" said Robert Maguire, research director at Crew, to the Handelsblatt. \"But it certainly didn't hurt and definitely created the appearance of corruption that pervades our system.\" Such donations would undermine Americans' trust that the government protects their interests and not the desires of a small, wealthy group of donors, says Maguire.\n\nPhilip Morris explains that it is \"in regular contact with policymakers, regulators, public health actors and other stakeholders worldwide\". The company discusses the role that scientifically proven smoke-free products can play in helping adult smokers quit smoking, says a spokesperson.\n\nThe fundamental difference from cigarettes is: nicotine pouches do not contain tobacco.",
  "summary": "Germany bans the sale of nicotine pouches, the White House eases regulation – and celebrates a new Philip Morris factory. Not only the tobacco company benefits from this.",
  "key_points": [
    "Trump promotes nicotine pouches as $1 billion business, compared to cigarettes",
    "Philip Morris International invests $1.2 billion in Colorado factory for nicotine pouches",
    "FDA delays regulation on specific nicotine pouches, Republicans call it \"Zynsurrection\""
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}