Business
Inside the dealmaking that pushed Trump to reclassify pot, expand access
President Donald Trump‘s move Thursday to sign an executive order easing federal restrictions on marijuana — and clearing the way for a Medicare pilot program covering CBD — caps a coordinated, yearlong push by the cannabis industry that combined traditional lobbying, sizable political donations, data-driven messaging and direct outreach to the president’s inner circle, industry insiders told CNBC.
Despite long-standing GOP opposition to loosening drug laws — including a small wave of bills from lawmakers seeking to tighten rules after the executive order — industry advocates have claimed a victory. They see the order as a success in reframing marijuana not as a social issue, but as a pro-business policy, ultimately winning over a president famous for his sobriety.
“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.
Three figures emerged as the primary architects of this policy shift, according to multiple insiders, including one CEO of a cannabis company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, who requested anonymity to speak candidly. The key players were Howard Kessler, a Palm Beach billionaire and longtime friend of the president; Kim Rivers, the CEO of cannabis giant Trulieve; and Tony Fabrizio, Trump’s longtime pollster, the people said.
The billionaire
U.S. President Donald Trump displays an executive order with Howard Kessler (R) that Trump signed in the Oval Office of the White House on December 18, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
Kessler, known for pioneering affinity credit cards, has been in Trump’s orbit since at least 2005, attending Trump’s wedding to Melania Trump and appearing at Mar-a-Lago and state dinners.
A leukemia survivor, Kessler began advocating for the medical benefits of cannabis for seniors in 2019, founding The Commonwealth Project to advance the cause. In September, Trump shared a Commonwealth Project video on Truth Social that said CBD coverage was “the most important senior health initiative of the century.”
Other prominent members of the Trump administration noted Kessler’s influence on Thursday.
During the signing ceremony, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, “We wouldn’t be here today” without Kessler.
“God bless you for being a pain in our sides,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, joked to Kessler in the Oval Office. Oz added that Kessler had promised to finally stop calling the president about the issue once the order was signed.
Kessler did not respond to a request for comment.
The White House said Trump’s executive order would open up access for new treatments.
“The presence of several leaders from law enforcement and veterans groups at the Oval Office signing is indicative of how President Trump continues to push the envelope to support our nation’s heroes,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement.
The industry CEO
Kim Rivers, CEO of Trulieve, one of the largest U.S. cannabis companies, has also cultivated a close relationship with the Trump administration, people familiar with the matter told CNBC, specifically through a personal connection with Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles.
Although Wiles was not a registered lobbyist for Trulieve, she previously worked at Ballard Partners, a Florida lobbying firm that represents the company.
“They [the Trump administration] want to see safe, regulated, tested products,” Rivers told CNBC’s “Fast Monday” Thursday night, adding that she’s interpreting the White House’s language as a signal that the administration intends to rein in a chaotic market rather than expand it unchecked.
“Millions of Americans are using medical cannabis,” Rivers said. “The president is very clear that he wants folks to be able to have access to safe, regulated, researched products in controlled environments.”
Rivers attended two pre-inauguration events, including a dinner for Vice President JD Vance, and reportedly joined a $1 million-a-plate fundraiser at Trump’s New Jersey golf club in August, where she urged him to reclassify marijuana, the Wall Street Journal first reported.
Trulieve’s campaign spending also backed Trump. Federal Election Commission filings show Trulieve donated $750,000 to Trump’s inauguration committee and $250,000 to his MAGA Inc. super PAC.
The company reportedly played a key role in securing Trump’s backing for a Florida ballot initiative to legalize recreational cannabis for adults over 21. While the initiative failed, Florida Division of Elections records show Trulieve spent more than $100 million on the election.
The pollster
The president also received data from his pollster, Fabrizio, who has his own ties to the issue.
American Rights and Reform, a cannabis-backed super PAC, paid six figures to the firm Fabrizio leads to run a poll that found broad voter support for rescheduling, according to FEC filings.
During the signing ceremony Thursday, Trump referenced Fabrizio’s data multiple times, highlighting a survey published in March that illustrated broad voter support for loosening restrictions. The data showed that young voters, aged 18 to 34, were the leading majority in supporting reform at about 80%.
Fabrizio’s son, AJ Fabrizio, is also a vocal figure in the cannabis industry and a CEO who has said he turned to medical marijuana to treat his own epilepsy.
AJ Fabrizio created his own cannabis extract brand called IVXX — a line of carbon dioxide-extracted hash oil made exclusively for Terra Tech Corp., a publicly traded cannabis company that owns dispensaries such as The Green Door in San Francisco and Blum in Oakland, California.
In interviews, AJ has described moving from skepticism to advocacy after cannabis stopped his seizures. He has also compared the future of cannabis to “Standard Oil” — arguing in a recent podcast interview that just as Rockefeller turned oil byproducts into a petrochemical empire, the cannabis industry is poised to revolutionize materials, medicine and nutrition.
A United Airlines plane approaches the runway at Denver International Airport on March 23, 2026.
Al Drago | Getty Images
United Airlines flight attendants approved a new five-year labor contract with 31% average raises to base pay by August and other improvements, marking the last of the major carriers with unionized flight crews to reach a deal post-Covid.
The labor deal would give United’s roughly 30,000 flight attendants their first raises in close to six years. The company and the flight attendants’ union reached a preliminary deal in March. Crews had rejected a contract last year.
The union said the contract won 82% approval from the flight attendants, with close to 90% of them voting.
“The contract will immediately change the lives of United Flight Attendants, especially our thousands of new hires who have been hired since the pandemic,” said Ken Diaz, president of the United chapter of the Association of Flight Attendants.
The contract also includes boarding pay, or pay for when the aircraft’s door is open and travelers are getting on. Airlines had for years started flight attendants’ pay clock once the boarding door was closed.
The contract comes with a roughly 7% to 8% increase in compensation and $741 million in back pay, as well as quality-of-life improvements like restrictions on red-eye flights and “sit pay” during disruptions of more than 2½ hours.
Joni Lamb, the president of Daystar Television Network, a televangelism broadcaster she founded with her husband, Marcus Lamb, turning their family into stars of Christian entertainment, died on Thursday. She was 65.
In an announcement posted on Daystar’s website, the company described the cause as “serious health matters” exacerbated by a recent back injury. It did not say where she died.
On a trip to Jerusalem in 1983, shortly after the couple married, Mr. Lamb visited the Mount of Olives and felt God telling him to move to Montgomery, Ala., and start a Christian TV station. He and Ms. Lamb poured their energy and modest finances into the effort and began appearing on the air two years later.
By the time they founded Daystar — in Texas in 1997 — they were experienced entrepreneurs and performers. After just a few years, they owned 24 stations around the country. By 2010, they had become the second-largest Christian broadcaster, after Trinity Broadcasting Network, and were reaching more than 200 countries, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Compared with other televangelists, the Lambs “are younger and come across as more ordinary folks,” David Clark, the president of a rival Christian broadcaster, told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2001. “They come across as being sincere.”
Mr. Clark added: “Marc is sharp, and his wife, Joni, is a big asset.”
The Lambs frequently appeared on their own network in a talk show format, discussing the pleasures and challenges of domestic life in a Christian idiom. Ms. Lamb, who liked to break into song, was Daystar’s leading talk show host, over the decades moderating shows like “Taking a Break With Joni” and “Joni Table Talk.” She would often be surrounded by other female regulars, putting questions to a male guest who had wisdom to impart.
The prominent pastor Jentezen Franklin visited earlier this year, for example, to discuss his new book, “The Power of Short Prayers.” The conversation slipped easily into evangelism.
“For someone watching right now: You’ve been listening; God’s opened your heart,” Ms. Lamb said. “In fact, your heart’s already been opened for some time, as you’ve been looking, searching, and you tried everything else. Always say, ‘Why don’t you try Jesus?’ A simple prayer: That will change your life for eternity.”
During the episode she was flanked, as she often was, by her two daughters, Rachel Lamb Brown and Rebecca Lamb Weiss, and referred to her husband by his first name, as if the viewers at home were family friends.
In 2021, Mr. Lamb died, at 64, of Covid-19, after having frequently suggested that people should pray instead of getting vaccinated. Ms. Lamb announced his death on air.
The travails of the Lamb family were often incorporated into the station’s programming. In 2010, Mr. Lamb admitted on live TV to an extramarital affair and described an attempt to extort millions of dollars in blackmail.
“Christian TV took a soap opera turn,” The Dallas Morning News wrote of the episode.
In 2020, Daystar returned a $3.9 million Paycheck Protection Program loan after the CBS program “Inside Edition” investigated the company’s purchase of a Gulfstream jet used by the Lamb family for beach and golf trips.
Four years later, a panel of Ms. Lamb’s talk show regulars questioned her on air about an accusation by her son, Jonathan, that there had been a coverup of a family member’s sexual molestation of his infant daughter. Ms. Lamb denied that any abuse had occurred, and after an investigation, no charges were filed.
Joni Lynn Trammell was born on July 19, 1960, in Greenville, S.C., where she grew up. Her father, Billy Frank Trammell, worked for a local refrigeration and heating company and would evangelize with friends he made playing basketball. Her mother, Sandra (Hudson) Trammell, competed in the Miss Greenville beauty pageant.
The Lambs met at a Greenville church in 1980, when Mr. Lamb, a traveling Pentecostal preacher, was visiting. They married in 1982.
Their early investments in TV stations came fortuitously, at a time of deregulation that The Star-Telegram would describe as “market bottom.” They later made money buying and selling small broadcast towers, and selling airtime to ministries and churches.
In 2023, Ms. Lamb married Doug Weiss, a sex therapist who became a co-host on Daystar. He survives her; other survivors include her three children and several grandchildren.
On air earlier this year, Ms. Lamb told viewers that the Christian faith guaranteed a posthumous reward.
“When you pray that prayer, and you receive Jesus, he forgives your sins,” she said. “When you die, you’re going to heaven.”
Business
US consumer price inflation hits 3.8% in April, highest in nearly 3 years as Iran war fuels energy costs – The Times of India
US inflation rose in April to 3.8 per cent as surging fuel costs amid the ongoing Iran-US conflict drove up consumer prices, hitting a three-year high complicating the Federal Reserve’s path on interest rates.Data released by the Labor Department on Tuesday showed the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 0.6 per cent in April after a 0.9 per cent jump in March, the biggest monthly rise since June 2022. On an annual basis, inflation accelerated to 3.8 per cent, marking the highest year-on-year increase, since May 2023.Petrol prices in the US are now more than 28 per cent higher than a year ago, according to official data. AAA estimates show average gasoline prices have crossed $4.50 per gallon, roughly 44 per cent above year-ago levels, squeezing household budgets and raising concerns about broader economic fallout.The spike in energy prices follows the escalation of hostilities between the US, Israel and Iran earlier this year. Markets were rattled after Tehran blocked access through the Strait of Hormuz — a critical global energy route that handles nearly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, remained relatively contained. Core CPI rose 0.4 per cent month-on-month and 2.8 per cent annually, suggesting that higher fuel costs have not yet fully spread across the wider economy.Food prices also edged higher in April. Grocery costs rose 0.7 per cent from March, led by increases in meat prices after a slight decline in the previous month.The latest inflation reading adds to uncertainty for the Federal Reserve, which had earlier been expected to begin cutting interest rates in 2026. Policymakers are now signalling caution amid fears that prolonged geopolitical tensions and elevated oil prices could trigger another wave of inflation.US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised the Fed for not lowering borrowing costs faster to support economic growth. Attention is now turning to Kevin Warsh, Trump’s nominee to succeed outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whose Senate confirmation is expected this week.Higher fuel costs are also beginning to weigh on corporate America. Appliance maker Whirlpool Corporation said last week that quarterly revenue fell nearly 10 per cent, warning that the war-driven economic slowdown had severely dented consumer confidence.
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