The New York Times reported May 8 that Trump plans to fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, just months into his tenure. The proximate cause: Makary made enemies inside the administration by taking positions on vaping, the abortion pill, and drug rejections that crossed the wrong people.
The strategic read is straightforward. Makary was a MAHA ally — he got the job because of it. But MAHA is RFK Jr.'s operation, and when a commissioner applies actual regulatory judgment rather than ideological compliance, the White House treats that as insubordination. Vaping has industry money behind it. The abortion pill has politics behind it. Makary tried to run a functional agency. That's not what this FDA slot is for.
Firing a Senate-confirmed commissioner for making science-based calls is executive pressure on an independent regulatory function — the same pattern playing out across every agency where process still occasionally produces inconvenient results.