Kyle Diamantas, the FDA's deputy commissioner for food, has been named acting commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, replacing Marty Makary, who resigned on Tuesday after a clash with the president over fruit-flavoured vapes. The 38-year-old former Jones Day corporate lawyer is taking the role on a temporary basis while Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr searches for a permanent chief, the Guardian reported.
Diamantas joined the FDA in February 2025 from the Miami office of Jones Day, where as a partner he defended Abbott Laboratories in a lawsuit alleging the company failed to warn parents that its formula for premature infants posed health risks. Abbott lost the suit in 2024 and was ordered to pay $495m; a Missouri appellate court upheld the decision in May 2026 after the manufacturer's appeal.
In his FDA food role, Diamantas oversaw nutrition and food-safety protocols and set strategic direction for federal food policy, serving as a liaison between the FDA, HHS and the White House. Two former officials told the Washington Post he was "able to avoid controversy by keeping senior leadership informed of his decisions," and within the agency he is broadly viewed as a non-controversial pick to temporarily lead. Diamantas holds a juris doctor from the University of Florida and has no professional medical experience.
Donald Trump described Diamantas as a "very talented person," and on Tuesday afternoon Kennedy posted that "the search for a new FDA Commissioner is already underway, and we will move forward with urgency," the Guardian reported. The acting commissioner is also a close friend of Donald Trump Jr, the president's eldest son, who appears with him in a 2021 social-media post by Osceola Outdoors founder Mike Tussey.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
