The administration clearly is of the belief that the FDA has legal authority to ban Trans fats and should do so. Given this, a far more compelling argument can be made for a nationwide ban on tobacco.
Optimistically, the Trans fat ban may save 20,000 lives per year. According to the CDC, cigarette smoke is directly responsible for over 480,000 American deaths per year, 20% of our total death rate. Many of the dead are children and other innocent victims of secondhand smoke.
If we were invaded by a large army in one place and a band of brigands in another, our military would respond to the major threat first. Any loss of life is a tragedy, but the choice is obvious. We should expect no less from the FDA. Yet nary a word, while it pursues much smaller fish.