How the cannabis industry leveraged a big win from Trump – POLITICO
How the cannabis industry leveraged a big win from Trump
Lobbying, political donations and old-fashioned friendships went into persuading the famously sober president.
A demonstrator waves a flag with marijuana leaves on it during a protest calling for the legalization of marijuana, outside of the White House, April 2, 2016. Jose Luis Magana / AP
By Caitlin Oprysko and Natalie Fertig,12/18/2025 06:51 PM EST
Donald Trump’s executive order to ease restrictions on marijuana is the culmination of more than a yearlong campaign by the cannabis industry to persuade the president to embrace a cause the GOP has historically opposed.
The effort included not only traditional levers of influence such as lobbying and political donations, but encompassed opinion polling and one-on-one conversations with friends of the famously sober president.
“I’ve never been inundated by so many people as I have about” reclassifying marijuana, Trump said during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office on Thursday.
High on that list of people was Howard Kessler, a financial services executive and longtime friend of Trump’s who attended the future president’s wedding to Melania Trump in 2005. Kessler pushed and prodded Trump to sign the executive order, according to multiple cannabis industry and administration officials with knowledge of how it came about. He was also a champion for one of the other policy changes Trump announced Thursday: a pilot program that would allow Medicare to cover treatments involving CBD for seniors.
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