Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary plans to resign Tuesday after months of turmoil at the agency and White House staff last week signing off on a plan to replace him, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe personnel matters.
It was not immediately clear who would be named acting head of the massive agency, which is charged with ensuring medications are safe, vaccines are effective and the majority of the U.S. food supply is not contaminated. Kyle Diamantas, who oversees the agency’s food program and was recently elevated to be one of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s senior counselors, has been considered for the role, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe personnel matters.
The Department of Health and Human Services, Makary and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
White House and senior health officials had discussed months ago how to stabilize the agency, including whether to delegate some of Makary’s responsibilities or replace him altogether amid senior staff departures and scrutiny from the drug industry and antiabortion groups.
The ouster of Makary after more than a year in office is the latest shake-up at the Department of Health and Human Services, with some deputies selected by Kennedy being swapped out for more conventional choices. Politico first reported on Makary’s plans to resign.
In April, President Donald Trump named former deputy U.S. surgeon general Erica Schwartz to helm the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, his third pick to run the agency charged with offering public health guidance to Americans.
Trump also named Fox News contributor and radiologist Nicole Saphier as his surgeon general pick, his third attempt to fill the job, ending the nomination of Casey Means, a health products entrepreneur and popular online personality. Means, who left the medical establishment toward the end of her residency, had been championed by some of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again supporters.
Some of the staffing moves have been shaped by Chris Klomp, a longtime health care entrepreneur whom the White House elevated in February to serve as Kennedy’s top deputy and has been granted some authority over personnel. Klomp’s elevation is part of the White House’s broader attempt to stabilize the health agencies and tamp down controversy ahead of the November midterm elections. Klomp had worked with Makary on previous efforts to improve FDA operations and management, said three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal operations.
Senior White House and HHS officials agreed in recent days on the need to replace Makary, concluding that new leadership was required to stabilize the agency after a year marked by shake-ups and turmoil that often spilled into the press, the people said.
Makary, a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine surgeon and former Fox News contributor, rose to prominence criticizing the medical establishment during the coronavirus pandemic. During Trump’s first term, he supported the administration’s price transparency efforts. Ahead of the 2024 election, he endeared himself to the burgeoning MAHA movement because of his penchant for challenging long-held assumptions and “groupthink” in his books.
The Senate confirmed Makary in March 2025 to lead the FDA. Three Democrats joined Republicans in the 56-44 vote, a rare instance of bipartisan support for a top Trump health pick.
But during his tenure, he drew scrutiny from pharmaceutical groups over agency decisions on some drugs, antiabortion advocates frustrated that the FDA hasn’t cracked down on a commonly used abortion pill and some former FDA commissioners, who expressed concern about a top FDA deputy’s plan to tighten vaccine approvals. Makary called criticism about the FDA’s rejections of certain drugs “corporate spin.”
“If your drug works, it’s going to get approved,” Makary said during a recent CNBC interview. He added: “Do you throw science out the window and do whatever the media tells you to do, and whatever the lobbyists and corporate interests tell you to do, or do you do what’s right?”
Makary has elevated some efforts key to the MAHA movement, including pressing companies to rid the food supply of artificial dyes and working on a plan to tighten a decades-old loophole allowing food companies to put chemicals in their products without notifying regulators. His supporters have defended him as a leader who challenges the status quo.
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