Reports indicate that Marty Makary plans to resign as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after a turbulent little over a year in the role. Multiple outlets, including The Hill, reported Tuesday that his departure follows mounting pressure inside the White House and clashes over several high-profile regulatory decisions:
The Wall Street Journal was first to report on Trump’s plans to remove Makary. Last month, the outlet reported that Trump reprimanded Makary for refusing to authorize new flavored vape products.
Makary has also angered anti-abortion lawmakers, who want him to be more aggressive in restricting access to the abortion pill mifepristone. Leading anti-abortion groups had called for his firing.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, lambasted Makary after the FDA approved a second generic abortion pill last year and expressed frustration with his agency seemingly delaying a promised safety review of the drug.
Makary, a former Johns Hopkins University surgeon and public health commentator, was confirmed in March 2025 and formally began serving as FDA commissioner in April 2025.
Current FDA food chief Kyle Diamantas is reportedly expected to serve as acting commissioner.
Makary’s tenure drew national attention because he became one of the most visible public faces of the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” push alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. Supporters viewed him as a reformer willing to challenge pharmaceutical industry norms, while critics argued the agency became increasingly politicized and unstable under his leadership.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
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I’m a happy camper! Makary is a surgeon who has problems with ethics. Last Aug. he announced that he was giving docs a year to transition patients on Desiccated Natural Thyroid over to Levothyroxine. There are about 6 mil ppl in the US who take thyroid. Only 2 types available: DNT and Levothyroxine. Of those 6 mil, about 2 mil are on NDT. Not by choice even though the American Thyroid Association states it as a choice.
Lets start with what happened in 2025 that started in 2019. Google “Dr. George Tidmarsh and Kevin Tang”. That was the problem. VERY unethical situation. Dr. Tidmarsh was at the FDA when Makary took over as Director. He made Tidmarsh his right hand man. Then when Tidmarsh had to resign because of the lawsuit with Tang’s company, that;’s when Makary decided to finish what Tismarsh was trying to do: hurt a company producing DNT because they had been business partners who had a pissing contest.
Dr Makary had the notion that this was do-able for everybody on DNT. That’s because, as a rule, docs only know what they are taught. Big Pharma, for years has convinced them that Granny’s remedies are worthless as is any medication brought forth prior to 1938 when the FDA was formed. DNT was “invented” in 1890 by a doc who’s patients were dying from goiter/hypothyroidism. He developed DNT from pig thyroids. They had minimal laboratory equipment back then but the doses were calculated by measuring the iodine levels. Not perfect but saved lives. The FDA grandfathered it in as a GRAS drug. People were not dropping dead taking it like they did with Vioxx some years back. (GRAS = Generally Recognized As Safe.)
In 1970, Big Pharma developed Levothyroxine and marketed it aggressively to docs (think STATINS today!). Every doc who has graduated medical school since it hit the market has been taught, Synthroid was the gold standard and DNT was bad. In 1986, Armour thyroid was switched from the iodine standard to actually measuring T3 & T4. (Your own thyroid produces T1, T2, T3 & T4). Levothyroxine is pure T4. Your body is supposed to convert T4 into T3. Some people do just fine and feel great. Then there’s the group of us out here wandering around with a genetic defect that can’t do the conversion to an effective level or otherwise have side effects like I did.
I was treated for “severe osteoarthritis” of my large joints for ~ 18 years with Synthroid, brand name, and the pushed onto generic Levo in 2010 when I went on Medicare. I had so many joint injections that the SSA put me on Disability at age 60 when I couldn’t even do a desk job due to joint pain.
Around the end of 2017/beginning of 2018, I found an Endocrinologist who was willing to try me on Armour Thyroid.
Bottom line: No major joint is painful and I rarely take anything but an aspirin.
That’s the History. When Dr Makary made his announcement about banning DNT, my first thought was how much it would cost me to move to Australia? DNT is regulated as FOOD there and is used by script exclusively. Then I realized that Bovine DNT is available on Amazon as a supplement. I know how to calculate dosages!
The I got mad. How dare he pull this stunt because he’s mad about the Tidmarsh-Tang issue! That’s when I started writing letters! I started with Pres. Trump and worked my way down to Bondie. RFK, Jr., the FDA, my Senators, My Rep in Congress, my Governor here in FL. I never got a response from anyone but apparently I’m not the only person who screamed! The bottom line for me would have been a choice between the arthritic pain again or death from myxedema. Considering what I went through previously with Levo, if I couldn’t move out of the USA, I would have died. I explained this very carefully. My daughter, an attorney, helped me put everything in language they could understand.
The reason I jumped on it so hard was because 7/30/25 I had a Total Thyroidectomy. I had a herd of nodules and the corral was too small! Given a choice: out now or wait 6 months. I don’t do lumps and bumps so it was now. Then I got a copy of my Path report. One of the 2 large, new nodules, contained Papillary carcinoma. Totally clean margins since it was still within the nodule and was not opened until in the lab. Then while I was in Post-Anesthesia Care, the Endocrinologist (or his PA?) apparently talked to me. I was there, the lights were on but nobody was home! Non-surgeons don’t have a clue how long it takes to recover after anesthesia. That’s why you can’t sign stuff or operate heavy machinery! When I told the man who saw me that I would ab-damn-solutely NOT switch to Levo, he declined me as a patient. I had to wait 6 wks to see my PCP. No thyroid gland and a lower dose of DNT than I needed now. By the 3rd day post-op, I could tell I needed a better dose. I was on 90 mg pre-op so, having been a Critical Care RN for years, I considered everything for about a minute. Then I doubled my dose to 180 mg. By the 4th day taking it, I felt wonderful. PCP almost fainted 6 weeks later. Ck’d labs, pulse and listened to my heart. There’s really only 2 serious side effects of too much DNT. High pulse and/or Atrial Fibrillation. I have neither and am still on 180 mg.
My main thought is that docs like Makary think they can handle anything since they are a surgeon. My thoughts on patients are that you need to be proactive about your health and anything that is out of kilter. You have to live in your body, doc doesn’t. The first thing I learned in Critical Care is that for every doc who graduates at the top of his/her class, there is a person at the bottom that everyone calls Doctor!
My antithesis is the doc who pats me on the head/shoulder when I ask a question and says, “Now, now, little lady! You let me worry about that!”