Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary has resigned from his position.
“Kyle Diamantis, FDA deputy commissioner for Food, will serve as acting commissioner,” Fox News reports.
Watch below:
BREAKING: FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has RESIGNED, per AP
Makary reportedly was not aligned with President Trump or HHS Secretary Kennedy on a myriad of issues.
Who should take his place and become the new FDA Commissioner? pic.twitter.com/XiCMIJOOCv
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 12, 2026
More from the Associated Press:
The FDA commissioner, as the leader of an agency that regulates billions of dollars in consumer goods and medicines, is often required to juggle competing priorities that straddle science and politics.
Makary faced a unique challenge in balancing calls by Trump and other Republicans to cut red tape at the FDA, while also tending to Kennedy’s interest in scrutinizing of the safety vaccines, drugs and food additives.
ADVERTISEMENTVirtually all of FDA’s senior career officials resigned, retired or were forced out in the first year of the second-term Trump administration, leading to a steady stream of leaks and negative stories in the media cataloging low morale, dysfunction and frustration among staff.
Makary’s handpicked deputy, Dr. Vinay Prasad, was pushed out of the agency twice in less than a year for running afoul of specialty drugmakers and groups for patients with rare diseases. Makary appeared poised to weather the controversy, despite an ongoing pressure campaign calling on Trump to fire him.
Recent months brought fresh criticisms from other interest groups that the White House considers key to Republican chances in November elections.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Trump had signed off on a plan to fire Makary.
However, the decision was not final.
Makary reportedly had clashes over vaping, abortion, and drug policy.
Exclusive: President Trump has signed off on a plan to fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary after clashes with the regulator over vaping, abortion and drug policy https://t.co/JLyVxhv7WM
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 8, 2026
Fox News shared further:
The resignation comes one day before Makary was set to testify in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday.
Though Makary’s resignation is not attributable to a specific issue, according to the White House official, his tenure atop the FDA has put him at the center of fights over abortion drug mifepristone – otherwise known as the “abortion pill” – vaccine policy and drug approvals, frustrating pro-life activists and MAHA-aligned critics who argued the agency has moved too slowly to carry out Trump’s health agenda.
When Trump was elected, pro-life groups and voters were banking on the administration rolling-back Biden-era rules that allowed mifepristone to be prescribed online and shipped through the mail. But the FDA left those rules intact and last year, under Makary’s leadership, approved a new generic version of the pill.
ADVERTISEMENT“President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy must end this now, remove Commissioner Makary, stop the mail order abortion scheme, and pull these child-killing drugs from the market,” said Live Action president Lila Rose to Fox News Digital ahead of Makary’s resignation.
“What a mess Makary turned out to be,” a Trump administration official told Fox News Digital earlier in May, claiming the commissioners’ comments and actions have told “every pro-life advocate their concerns are an afterthought.”
“The arrogance is stunning,” they added of the FDA commissioner.
