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Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary is resigning from his position Tuesday, a White House official told Fox News Digital.
The official said that Makary’s resignation has to do with “process at the FDA” and not a specific issue, and said there is “no bad blood” between President Donald Trump and the outgoing commissioner. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pushed for Makary’s resignation, according to the White House official.
Kyle Diamantis, FDA deputy commissioner for Food, will serve as acting commissioner, Fox News Digital learned.
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Trump called Makary a “great guy” who is a friend of his in remarks to the media later on Tuesday afternoon.
“He’s a great doctor and he was having some difficulty, but he’s going to go on and he’s going to do well,” Trump told the media as he departed the White House for a high-stakes trip to China.
“I want to thank Dr. Marty Makary for having done a great job at the FDA,” Trump added in a Truth Social post on Tuesday. “So much was accomplished under his leadership. He was a hard worker, who was respected by all, and will go on to have an outstanding career in Medicine. Kyle Diamantas, a very talented person, will be put in the Acting position.”
Makary’s resignation followed mounting pressure from pro-life advocates and administration critics who had grown frustrated with his handling of several high-profile FDA decisions and claims he has slow-rolled MAHA initiatives, according to media reports in recent weeks.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the president had reportedly already signed off on a plan to fire Makary, citing three familiar sources who cited Makary’s handling of abortion and drug policy.
“I’ve been reading about it, but I know nothing about it,” Trump said the same day after he was asked by reporters if Makary would be fired.
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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.
“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.
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“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.
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Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser told the Wall Street Journal earlier in May that “Trump is the problem,” when it comes to the abortion issues falling off for the GOP in recent years.
And if candidates want her group’s $160 million in the midterms and 2028 presidential election, she said they must commit “to pro-life action at the national level.”
Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said the resignation was “welcome news” in reaction on X Tuesday afternoon.
“Dr. Makary was uniquely destructive to the prolife movement,” Hawley wrote on X. “He attempted to place pro-abortion lawyers in key positions. He slow walked a vitally necessary review of the abortion drug mifepristone. He used his discretion to approve a new abortion drug when the data shows it sends 1 in 10 women to the emergency room. He froze out prolife leaders and repeatedly stonewalled Congress. His resignation is an opportunity for the FDA to reset.”
Makary’s exit follows a series of high profile departures this year, including former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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