Tracy Beth Høeg, acting director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, is leaving the agency, according to three sources familiar with the matter, as reported by STAT News. Her departure comes days after Commissioner Marty Makary submitted his resignation; Michael Davis, currently the center's deputy director, will serve as acting director in her place, according to STAT News.
Multiple former Biden administration officials have publicly and anonymously questioned Xavier Becerra's executive competence at the Department of Health and Human Services as he leads California's crowded gubernatorial primary, according to NBC News. Said Xochitl Hinojosa, who led the Justice Department's public affairs office under Biden: "He was not effective in government, and I think that a lot of people in the Biden administration are talking about this because they realize that he was not an effective HHS secretary." Former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who has endorsed Becerra, countered that he "led with courage and expertise" on the pandemic and drug pricing.
Marty Makary is departing as FDA commissioner, with Kyle Diamantas named as acting replacement, according to STAT News. Bill Cassidy, chair of the Senate health committee, faces a primary challenge this weekend from two rivals including a Trump-backed candidate, a race STAT describes as having "far reaching implications for Trump's health care agenda."
Kyle Diamantas, who previously served as the FDA's top food regulator, has been installed as acting commissioner following Marty Makary's resignation, according to STAT News. Industry sources told STAT that biotech companies and sector investors expect Diamantas to be a stabilizing presence rather than a disruptive one at the agency.
Rich Danker, assistant secretary for public affairs at HHS, resigned citing irreconcilable differences with an administration effort to advance flavored e-cigarettes, according to The Hill. Danker left one day after FDA Commissioner Marty Makary moved to expand flavored vape authorizations, which Danker argued risk addicting children.
The Trump administration is searching for a new FDA commissioner with priorities including rebuilding staff trust, food policy, and drug-approval reform, with officials hoping to complete the process over "the next several weeks," according to STAT News. No short list of candidates currently exists, an anonymous official said, and acting commissioner Kyle Diamantas — formerly head of the FDA's food center — could still hold the role when midterms arrive in November.
The Department of Health and Human Services placed an immediate six-month moratorium on new Medicare enrollments for home health care and hospice providers, citing fraud prevention, according to The Hill. The freeze bars new providers in both categories from signing up for Medicare reimbursement during the moratorium period.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a six-month moratorium on new Medicare enrollments by hospice and home health agencies, citing fraud concerns, according to CBS News. CMS said it will "intensify targeted investigations, deploy advanced data analytics, and accelerate the removal of hospice and HHA providers from the Medicare program that are suspected of committing fraud" during the pause.
Marty Makary has left his position as FDA Commissioner following a turbulent tenure marked by internal conflict at the agency, according to RealClearPolitics. His departure is the latest in a series of leadership exits across HHS under the current administration.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s initiative to help Americans stop taking antidepressants omits the clinical infrastructure that safe deprescribing requires, including gradual tapering protocols, psychological support, and accessible therapy alternatives, according to STAT News. Said Stanford addiction researcher Keith Humphreys: antidepressants and heroin exist in "different universes" when it comes to addiction risk, directly rebutting Kennedy's public claim — while a 2025 JAMA Psychiatry study found recent gains in psychotherapy access were concentrated almost entirely among younger, wealthier, college-educated, urban adults with private insurance, leaving older, rural, and uninsured patients without the alternatives a deprescribing push would require.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has absorbed a series of setbacks at HHS, including Trump's appointment of a vaccine-supporting CDC director, the withdrawal of MAHA ally Casey Means from the surgeon general nomination, and the resignation of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, according to The Bulwark. Said Kennedy of Trump's replacement surgeon general pick, whom he praised despite her having publicly criticized his efforts to roll back children's vaccine requirements: "I look forward to partnering with her."
Marty Makary resigned as FDA commissioner, with one source telling CBS News that his departure stems from a dispute over flavored e-cigarettes — specifically that Makary had refused to approve fruit-flavored vaping products from Glas Inc. but was pressured by the administration to do so before the FDA approved them on May 6, according to CBS News. Said President Trump on the South Lawn: "Marty's a terrific guy, but he's going to go on and he's going to lead a good life. He was having some difficulty." Kyle Diamantas is expected to serve as acting commissioner.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigned after weeks of pressure on his tenure as the nation's top food, drug, tobacco, and medical device regulator, according to the New York Times. The agency's top food official will step in as acting commissioner.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is directing a large-scale vaccine research effort inside the department even as the White House has directed him to soften his public statements on vaccines, according to the New York Times. Kennedy's internal priorities diverge from the public posture the administration has asked him to maintain.
President Trump has approved a plan to fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, according to CBS News, citing two sources. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the decision, noted that Trump had pressured Makary to approve fruit-flavored e-cigarettes — which Makary had been refusing — and that White House advisers told the president Makary was blocking the administration's vaping agenda.
A hantavirus outbreak aboard the expedition vessel MV Hondius, which left Argentina in April and has killed three passengers, is drawing attention to deteriorating U.S. global health infrastructure under the Trump administration, according to The Bulwark. Said Jeanne Marrazzo, who leads the Infectious Diseases Society of America: "It's probably going to burn itself out" — but she and other specialists note that the South African lab that identified the strain benefited from years of PEPFAR funding, a program Trump hit with a stop-work order after taking office.
The State Department is dispatching a charter flight to retrieve 17 Americans stranded aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship after a hantavirus outbreak, according to The Hill. The vessel is expected to dock off the coast of Spain this weekend.
The operational details are thin, but the strategic read is straightforward: the administration is moving fast enough to avoid a visible consular failure. Seventeen citizens, a named pathogen, international waters — the liability window is narrow.
Hantavirus has no approved antiviral treatment and carries a significant fatality rate in its pulmonary form. A charter repatriation keeps infected or exposed Americans out of foreign hospital systems and inside U.S. public health jurisdiction — the right call, and the minimum the State Department's evacuation protocols require.
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.
Trump plans to fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary following months of turmoil inside the agency, Bloomberg Politics reported Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The strategic read here is simple: Makary was brought in as a reform-friendly outsider, but disorder at FDA has become a liability the White House can no longer absorb. Firing him doesn't solve the underlying chaos — it signals that the chaos is the point. A rudderless FDA means slower drug approvals, weaker pandemic-prep capacity, and an agency too destabilized to push back on anything.
Who benefits: anyone who wants pharmaceutical and food-safety oversight neutered without the political cost of formally abolishing it. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s HHS sits directly above FDA. Watch who gets nominated next — that name will tell you everything about the actual operational agenda.