Former Fda Head Accuses Trump Administration Of Bowing To Industry

Former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary on Tuesday backed up a former White House adviser’s criticisms about industry influence over the administration’s health care policies.

“A lot of pressure from White House and HHS aides was not on medical cures or healthy food but instead on getting more vapes approved and catering to lobbyists,” Makary told POLITICO. “Americans don’t want their kids smoking strawberry banana vapes — they want a government that stands up to corruption.”

“Every time I saw government corruption, I rejected it, just as voters did last week,” he added.

Makary’s comments appear to be his first referring to the pressure he received from the White House during his tenure, which ended with his resignation in May.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The remarks come days after Calley Means, a former senior adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., blamed a slew of senior Trump officials — including former chief of staff Susie Wiles — for stalling Make America Healthy Again movement-backed policies on food and pesticides. The White House has pushed back on his claims, which Means has continued to amplify on social media.

Makary’s clash with the White House over his opposition toward authorizing fruit-flavored vape pods immediately preceded his departure. But a confluence of issues ultimately spurred his exit from the administration, POLITICO previously reported.

The former commissioner upset anti-abortion Republicans eager to see the Food and Drug Administration restrict online prescriptions of the abortion pill mifepristone. Drug companies also complained that the agency under his watch was inconsistent in its reviews of their products.

The agency also suffered high-profile departures of longtime career leaders — including former Oncology Center of Excellence Director Richard Pazdur — and political allies alike, while rank-and-file FDA staff complained about poor management.

The FDA experienced a massive downsizing in early 2025 launched by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. In its wake, Makary hired a pair of close allies — fellow pandemic-era contrarians who had criticized the Biden administration’s Covid-19 policies — to run the agency’s drug and vaccine centers, which career employees historically led.