FDA Drug Chief Fired After Refusing to Resign

Was MAHA always doomed to fail or did Trump and RFK Jr. simply betray everything it stood for?
FDA Drug Chief Fired After Refusing to Resign
Above: Tracy Beth Høeg during a CDC vaccine advisory committee meeting in Atlanta on Dec. 4, 2025. Image credit: Megan Varner/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Spin


Pro-establishment narrative

The MAHA movement keeps proving it was never built to last — Makary got pushed out for resisting flavored vapes, his vaccine-skeptic hires are gone, and the FDA is now a revolving door of chaos. RFK Jr. himself decided Makary had to go, yet couldn't keep his own team intact or stop industry from running circles around the agency. This is what happens when anti-establishment posturing meets actual governance.

Establishment-critical narrative

Trump is betraying his health-focused voters. Reform-minded officials like Høeg were fired for refusing to bow to industry pressure, while Trump handed flavored vape approvals to tobacco executives over cheeseburgers at his golf club. The sad reason for this is that he's placed Kennedy, the man who sued Monsanto, under his thumb, which is why he's now defending glyphosate production and praising Big Pharma-linked nominees, leaving the voters who trusted him with nothing but broken promises.


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© 2026 Improve the News Foundation.

All rights reserved.

Version 7.6.0