President Donald Trump deserves real credit for the leadership change at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The move put a bookend on an increasingly untenable chapter — and acting Commissioner Kyle Diamantas is the right person to steady the agency.
Marty Makary did important work during COVID. He told the truth about natural immunity and school closures amid the leftist capture of the public health establishment. But those skills do not make a good FDA Commissioner, and his position at the FDA was wrong almost from the start.
The Washington Reporter heard about turmoil at the FDA from numerous Republican Hill staff, and even from several members over the last several months. People painted a consistent picture: Makary was difficult to work with. His application of regulatory reviews was unpredictable in ways that kept everyone guessing. And he showed little real respect for Right to Try, a signature Trump policy that gives terminally ill patients access to investigational therapies. Right to Try was one of the best accomplishments of the first Trump term.
But Makary often sounded more like a federal bureaucrat, always looking for a reason to say “no.” This flies in the face of the “Trump speed” that has categorized so much of Trump’s tenure as president.
Going to war with the life sciences sector by blocking drug development is a liberal priority. It has never been a Trump priority. Trump ran on a platform of unleashing American innovation, lowering costs for patients through programs like TrumpRx, and getting cures to the people who need them — not on throwing up hurdles to make American medical innovation unnecessarily difficult.
The same frustration extended to the FDA’s vape policy. Makary continued the FDA’s pattern of refusing to approve legitimate flavored vape applications, despite Trump previously signaling support for helping adult smokers transition away from combustible cigarettes.
The real issue is that under the Biden administration, millions of illegal and dangerous Chinese-made flavored disposable vapes flooded gas stations and convenience stores across the country. Anyone can see it by walking into almost any gas station. At the same time, the FDA continued blocking or delaying legitimate applications from American companies trying to bring regulated products to market. The result was a system that punished U.S. businesses while allowing Chinese vapes to flood the market.
As a contrast, Diamantas gets rave reviews from career FDA officials, Hill Republicans, and the industries he has dealt with as Deputy Commissioner for Food. One Hill source told us that Kyle is “serious but not arrogant, he took our feedback and wanted to work with our office.” Kyle promotes the president’s agenda rather than his own, which should be the baseline expectation for everyone in the administration. Colleagues from his time at law firms also speak highly of his integrity and his judgment.
We don’t know whether Trump will nominate Diamantas for the role on a permanent basis. If Trump makes that call, he will have our full support. The FDA needs steady hands, sound judgment, and a clear-eyed commitment to the president’s agenda. Diamantas has all three.
