At a recent dinner at his private club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Donald Trump talked about the decision to dismiss the country’s main economic statistic and jokes about New York City policy.
However, at one point, the conversation turned to a politically controversial and still open issue: the loosening of federal restrictions on marijuana in the United States.
“We need to analyze this. It’s something we are going to analyze,” Trump acknowledged against the small group of donors, according to two people at the event.
Almost a year ago, the Republican suggested that his return to the White House would change marijuana status, facilitating adult access to safe products and giving the states greater margin of maneuver to seek legalization of the drug.
He signaled support to remove marijuana from the same category as dangerous narcotics such as heroin. This differentiated him from many of his republican predecessors and occurred at a time when Trump won younger Americans, minority groups and voters with libertarian trends.
But seven months after the beginning of his second term as president, the lack of action regarding marijuana remains a promise not remarkable for a head of state who acted rapidly compared to other campaign promises.
Behind the scenes, the question exposed deep failures within Trump’s team. The main political advisors, who led an aggressive campaign to fulfill campaign promises, asked for action, according to two people familiar with the internal discussions.
They argued that such a measure could help strengthen republican support before the middle -term elections, which happen next year.
Other political advisors, however, remain cautious, warning that moral and legal branches of loosening marijuana restrictions can overcome possible gains and even have a counterproductive political effect.
In statement to CNN, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said that when it comes to marijuana, “all political and legal requirements and implications are being considered.”
“The only interest that guides the political decision of the president is what is the best interest of the American people,” he said.
Sources report Trump’s promise on marijuana
Discussions on the topic intensify, while dubious signs are publicly telegated to what Trump can do next.
Scotts Miracle-Gro CEO James Hagenorn told Fox Business, “several times” in particular that plans to reclassify marijuana for a less controlled category.
The 157-year garden garden giant has become a leader in the incipient cannabis industry, with a rapidly growing hydroponics business.
According to records of the Federal Electoral Commission, the company donated $ 500,000 to a Super PAC (Political Action Committee) aligned with Trump last year.
But marijuana policy reform was visibly absent from the main objectives recently published by the newly deposed head of Trump Anti-Drug Agency, Terrance Cole.
Hagenorn said Cole’s recent rejection to Cannabis was not surprising from a “career police.”
“I think what (cole) needs to hear is a call from the president or the chief of staff saying, ‘This is a promise he made during the campaign, and promises made are promises fulfilled,'” he commented to Fox Business.
This “promise” of Trump, as Hagenorn described it, arrived in a message on social networks last year, during the final months of his presidential campaign, when he pressed aggressively to expand his coalition beyond traditional Republican voters.
In September, in a publication on the Social Truth, the president announced that he intended in his home state, Florida.
Trump added that, as president, “he would continue to focus on research to unlink the medicinal uses of a drug from a drug 3”.
Marijuana is currently classified as a drug from list 1 – the federal category for illicit substances with “no medicinal use currently accepted and high abuse potential”.
Transferring it to list 3, which the anti-drug agency defines as “drugs with moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence,” is something Trump claimed to support.
“As I said earlier, I believe it is time to end unnecessary arrests and imprisonment of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use,” Trump wrote in the publication.
He even discussed the issue with Joseph Edgar Foreman, the Pró-Manha rapper best known as Afroman, when the two attended the Libertarian Party convention in Washington, DC last summer.
An obvious measure?
An issue raised in discussions on the subject is whether marijuana reclassification would impair police authorities to use marijuana smell as a probable cause for approaches and searches, one of the sources pointed out.
For Trump, whose crime fighting platform has emphasized police training to pursue drug criminals, this concern may emerge as a critical point.
There is also the personal opinions of the president. Although his public stance regarding marijuana use has softened in recent years, he remains a well -known abstanity whose opinions on drug use have been drastically shaped by his late brother’s alcohol addiction.
In comments recorded in 2018, Trump shared other concerns – not proven – about the drug.
“In Colorado, they have more accidents. It causes a Qi problem,” he said.
Defenders ask for release of marijuana in the USA
Defenders of a change have asked the Republican, public and privately, to commit to the reclassification of marijuana, arguing that this would open research opportunities, create jobs, and give clarity to millions of patients in states who legalized medicinal marijuana, including many veteran military personnel.
In April, the CNN He reported that a group supported by the cannabis industry, the American Rights and Reform Pac, aired pro-wisdom ads aiming at Trump’s TVs in the White House and Mar-ago.
The PAC also donated $ 1 million (equivalent to about $ 5 million) in March to Maga, Inc., a Super PAC aligned with Trump, according to recent FEC records.
In 2024, the Trulieve marijuana company and the US cannabis council contributed a total of $ 1 million for Trump’s inauguration.
Other influential voices also requested action. The Joe Rogan Podcloth, a key supporter during the presidential campaign, reiterated its appeal for the legalization of marijuana on its program last month.
And Alex Bruesewitz, Trump’s generation Z counselor, who led the Republican procession for young people last year, also resorted to social networks recently to ask for a change in politics about marijuana, suggesting that she has ample support.
He considered the reclassification of the drug an “obvious suggestion.”
Almost 60% of Americans support the legalization of recreational marijuana, compared to 11% of people who think it should not be legalized for any purpose, according to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey.
Recent surveys suggest that the president is in danger of losing support among young people as Rogan and other influencers are disappointed with Trump’s return to Washington.
A change of great repercussion in marijuana politics could be a way to regain them.
In a memorandum released by CNN Earlier this year, Trump’s main researcher Tony Fabrizio, and his partners wrote that changing marijuana policy was “an easy way to attract the voters necessary to win in 2026, especially young voters.”
*Alayna Trene, from CNN, contributed to this report
