FDA commissioner is set to resign after tumultuous tenure

As Food and Drug Administration commissioner, Dr. Marty Makary was often at the center of controversies. Anna Moneymaker/ hide caption toggle caption Anna Moneymaker/ Dr. Marty Makary is expected to resign as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Tuesday, according to a federal health official familiar with management of the agency but who wasn't authorized to speak publicly. President Trump spoke at the White House about the expected FDA leadership change in remarks as he was preparing to leave on his trip to meet China's President Xi Jinping. "Marty is a great guy. He's a friend of mine. He's a wonderful man, and he's going to be off and the assistant, the deputy, is taking over temporarily," Trump said. "He was having some difficulty, you know, he's a great doctor, and he was having some difficulty. But he's going to go on and he's going to do well." "It came down to the fruit-flavored vape issue," the person with knowledge of the situation said, referring to pressure on Makary from the White House to authorize the sales of flavored e-cigarettes earlier this month. "He is at peace with the decision [to leave]. And he's in good spirits, I would say." Makary's resignation would end a tumultuous 13-month tenure at the agency. At times he angered the Make America Healthy Again movement galvanized by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is Makary's boss, for not advancing its agenda quickly enough. …