Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary is resigning from his role on Tuesday.
Makary is stepping down after just 13 months overseeing the agency, Politico first reported, citing an anonymous administration official. His exit comes after The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) first reported on Friday that President Donald Trump had approved a plan to oust Makary from the agency, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
Trump acknowledged Makary’s exit from the FDA on Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters that he is a “wonderful man and he’s going to be off, and the assistant, the deputy, is taking over temporarily.” The president added Makary is “going to go on, and he’s going to lead a good life.”
Trump also thanked Makary “for having done a great job at the FDA” in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.
“So much was accomplished under his leadership,” Trump wrote in the social media post. “He was a hard worker, who was respected by all, and will go on to have an outstanding career in Medicine.”
Trump added that FDA Deputy Commissioner for Food Kyle Diamantas will lead the agency in an acting capacity, also referring to Diamantas as “a very talented person.” In recent months, Diamantas rapidly gained support among many people in the Trump administration and the “Make America Healthy Again” movement to become acting FDA commissioner, according to Politico.
Diamantas recently became one of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s senior counselors, The Washington Post reported. He has “extensive experience working with various federal and state agencies and policy makers, scientific organizations, consumer advocacy groups, and industry stakeholders,” according to his bio on the FDA’s website.
The White House did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley wrote in a Tuesday X post that “this is welcome news,” adding that Makary “was uniquely destructive to the prolife movement.”
There has been recent speculation that Makary might exit his position at the FDA amid concerns over contentious decisions involving drug approvals, vaccines and the agency’s handling of the abortion pill Mifepristone, U.S. News and World Report reported on Friday.
Makary, a surgical oncologist and health policy researcher, was confirmed as FDA commissioner by a bipartisan vote of the U.S. Senate in March 2025 and was sworn in the following month. Trump had previously criticized Makary for not acting fast enough to approve flavored vaping and nicotine products, the WSJ reported on May 5 citing sources familiar with the matter.
The FDA announced on Tuesday that it was authorizing certain fruit-flavored vapes for adults 21 and over for the first time. Bret Koplow, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a Tuesday statement that “by helping to prevent youth use, device access restrictions are a potential game changer.”
Some Trump administration officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., had previously considered reducing Makary’s responsibilities at the FDA amid complaints about his management style, the WSJ reported in November 2025, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
“He [Makary] will not be missed by a single career person,” an anonymous FDA staffer told Politico on Friday in response to reports of his pending exit. “And we will only regret it when they manage to find someone worse.”
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