Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary resigned Tuesday after months of turmoil at the agency and White House staff last week signing off on a plan to replace him.
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, will be the agency’s acting leader, President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump also posted a text message from Makary, where Makary offered his resignation and touted his record leading the FDA.
“So much was accomplished under his leadership,” Trump wrote.
The FDA’s leadership team is likely to undergo a broader overhaul in the coming days, with several other senior officials expected to depart or be reassigned, said two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe personnel matters. They declined to detail what those changes would be.
Trump told reporters Tuesday afternoon that the administration was looking for a new FDA commissioner. The president declined to say whether Makary had resigned or been fired.
“Everybody wants that job. It’s a very important job,” Trump said. “Marty’s a terrific guy, but he’s going to go on, and he’s going to lead a good life.”
In a social media post Tuesday afternoon, Kennedy said the search for a new commissioner is underway. He praised Makary, saying he took on “entrenched interests, challenged the status quo, and never lost sight of the American people we serve.”
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.
Kennedy had also grown frustrated with Makary’s leadership and decided to replace him, the two people said. Makary had not held a senior government job before being tapped to lead the FDA, an agency with sweeping responsibility to regulate the safety of medicines, food and other products used daily by Americans.
Makary had clashed with White House and other officials in recent weeks over whether to allow sales of flavored vapes, and he warned about their appeal to young Americans. The FDA last week authorized the first fruit-flavored vapes for adults 21 and over amid Trump’s previous vows to “save” vaping. Makary’s allies have characterized his departure as a matter of principle. Makary was unhappy about the agency’s action on fruit-flavored vapes, and that was the primary factor in his decision to resign, according to another person who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
Diamantas will temporarily helm the agency where he landed last year after working as a partner at the law firm Jones Day. At the FDA, he has threaded the needle of currying favor within the Department of Health and Human Services, the Make America Healthy Again movement and among agency career staffers.
Within the agency, he is generally viewed as a non-controversial pick to temporarily serve in the role, according to one current and one former FDA staffer. He has endeared himself to some in the agency in part because he kept senior leadership in place, according to two former officials, whereas other FDA centers saw leadership turnover and waves of departures.
Makary’s ouster after more than a year in office is the latest shake-up at HHS, with some deputies selected by Kennedy being swapped out for choices with more traditional experience. Politico first reported on Makary’s plans to resign.
In April, 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 MAHA 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?”
Several GOP senators Tuesday criticized Makary, including Sen. Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), who chairs the Senate’s health committee that is set to review the nomination of Makary’s replacement.
“Dr. Makary was part of a broader symptom of an administration that has not paid attention to pro-life issues,” Cassidy, who clashed with Makary over the FDA’s policies around the abortion drug mifepristone, wrote on social media. “I care deeply about life, and I anticipate the next FDA nominee shall as well.”
John F. Crowley, president and CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, an industry trade group, said that “strong, stable and science-driven leadership” is needed.
“Dr. Makary inherited an FDA in crisis after the DOGE changes, which included the firing of thousands of employees,” he said in a statement. “These staffing and morale challenges were compounded by constant leadership changes over the past year and questions around shifting FDA standards for drug approvals.”
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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