Politics
F.D.A. Nominee to Face Grilling Over Cutbacks and Policy Shifts
Dr. Marty Makary may face sharp questions from senators about whether he will defend the Food and Drug Administration against staff cutbacks and industry pressure on Thursday, although he is still expected to sail through his confirmation hearing to become the agency’s commissioner.
Dr. Makary built his reputation as a contrarian in the medical field, gaining widespread notice by speaking out about medical errors. Those close to him have remarked on his willingness to agree with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, on a variety of issues.
As a pancreatic cancer surgeon and health policy researcher at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Makary has been viewed by some as a study in contrasts. He has written several books criticizing what he considers flaws in medical orthodoxy that result in recommendations backed by scant evidence.
Yet he also drew attention from the Trump team as a Fox News personality with more controversial views, like his relatively early predictions that Covid would fade as a concern and that widespread immunity would take hold long before it did.
Dr. Reshma Ramachandran, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine, said that it was not clear which is the “true Marty Makary.”
She said that was an important question, given some of Mr. Kennedy’s pronouncements. The health secretary has suggested that the F.D.A. should lift constraints on risky products like raw milk, which can be rife with bacteria, and had embraced hydroxychloroquine, a drug briefly used as a Covid therapy before its risks were deemed to exceed any benefit.
“I’m hoping, and kind of desperately hoping,” she said, “that just a top-line overall priority for him is to maintain the integrity and independence of the agency.”
Mr. Kennedy has already begun to signal shifts in vaccine policy, an area Dr. Makary would also oversee at the F.D.A. Mr. Kennedy has expressed an interest in examining the safety of vaccines that have been on the market for decades and that protect millions of American children and adults against debilitating diseases.
The agency has vast regulatory authority over products including prescription and over-the-counter drugs, medical devices, tobacco and about 80 percent of the food supply.
The F.D.A. has a staff of about 18,000 and a budget of about $7.2 billion. Among its many oversight roles, the agency regulates artificial intelligence software used to scan medical images, an area where the agency has been dismissed as too permissive in its approvals.
If confirmed, Dr. Makary would first encounter tensions among staff members, who have been whipsawed by the Trump administration’s aggressive cost-cutting measures in recent weeks.
The staff endured an initial round of about 700 layoffs, decimating some product-review teams that ensure the safety of medical devices such as surgical robots and systems that deliver insulin to people with diabetes. Those firings were followed by some job reinstatements.
On Tuesday, panic swept through some quarters of the agency when the Trump administration put about two million square feet of the agency’s Maryland office space up for possible sale before backing off. Concern also spread when the lease to a key drug-safety lab in St. Louis was posted as savings on the “Wall of Receipts” advertised by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. (The agency said on Wednesday that the lab would remain open.)
Further staff cuts are expected.
“What are the F.D.A. resources going to look like in an environment where it seems like the current approach is slashing and burning, without any kind of thoughtful deliberation?” asked Dr. Aaron S. Kesselheim, a Harvard professor of medicine who has studied the F.D.A.
In documents filed with the Office of Government Ethics, Dr. Makary pledged to step away from millions of dollars in financial interests. Those steps include resigning from his role as co-owner of Global Appropriateness Measures, a company that scans health data for signs of inappropriate medical care with clients including health plans and physician groups. He also said he resigned from positions at Sesame, a telehealth company that provides weight-loss medications, and from MedRegen, a pharmaceutical company, and others.
There are many other issues that Dr. Makary would face, including a new review that Mr. Kennedy pledged to undertake on the safety of abortion pills. Tobacco companies could emerge emboldened after the Biden administration failed to advance cigarette restrictions, and after having heavily contributed to President Trump’s campaign. The president’s decision to impose tariffs could affect the supply of essential medicines from overseas.
He will also be expected to advance Mr. Kennedy’s goal of ending what he has described as corruption in public health agencies, closing the revolving door between the F.D.A. and the industries it regulates. Dr. Makary will be expected to work with the Make American Healthy Again coalition, which is banking on the administration to identify and remove unhealthy food additives.
Those priorities are already appearing to clash, though: The new acting chief of the F.D.A. food division, Kyle Diamantas, comes directly from a law firm where he was defending the maker of infant formula, a regulated product, against claims that it harmed premature babies.
Politics
Senator John Kennedy introduces America to ‘Margaret,’ his elliptical trainer named after Thatcher
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Margaret Thatcher once ran Britain. John Kennedy’s “Margaret” mostly runs him into the ground.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., is going viral after posting a tongue-in-cheek workout video introducing followers to “Margaret” — his elliptical trainer named after former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — while wearing a red bandanna and speaking directly to the camera from his Louisiana carport.
“Hey X, I have somebody I’d like you to meet,” Kennedy says at the start of the minute-long video posted to social media Friday.
“This is Margaret. Margaret is my elliptical trainer. I named Margaret after Margaret Thatcher because both kick butt and take names.”
ERIC SWALWELL’S ‘CRINGE’ WORKOUT VIDEO MOCKED FOR BENCHING LIGHT WEIGHT
Senator John Kennedy, R-La., posted the video showing his unconventional at-home workout routine with elliptical “Margaret” to social media channels Friday. (@SenJohnKennedy via X)
Kennedy goes on to explain that “Margaret” lives outside under the carport for three reasons: the machine is too heavy to move, his wife “won’t let” him bring it inside and because he enjoys getting in a workout during Louisiana summers.
The Senator said he enjoys working outside during Louisiana summers, a detail that drew disbelief from many viewers familiar with the state’s famously brutal heat and humidity.
“As you can see, Margaret, my elliptical trainer, is out here under my carport in Louisiana,” Kennedy says. “After Margaret kicks my butt, I look for air conditioning.”
The surreal, self-aware clip quickly drew thousands of reactions online, with users roasting Kennedy’s bandanna look while also praising the senator’s everyman personality.
SEN KENNEDY PRAISES FETTERMAN AS A ‘TOTAL BANGER,’ WHO ‘DOESN’T GIVE A DAMN’ ABOUT ANGERING LIBERALS
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., talks to reporters in the basement of the U.S. Capitol on July 31, 2025, as Senate lawmakers work to finish legislative business before the August recess. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“You are rocking the dadgum crap outta that bandana,” one user wrote. “I thought you were representing the Bloods for a minute. Tell Margaret I think she’s cute but evil.”
Others praised Kennedy’s personality and down-home delivery style.
“You are a gem to us normal folk Mr. Kennedy. Live long and prosper!” one supporter posted.
“Senator Kennedy is that kind of Southerner that makes you feel you’re sitting on the front porch having some bit of common sense enlighten you in that poetic Southern way,” another wrote.
The Louisiana Republican has long cultivated a folksy, humorous public image that often breaks through online with colorful one-liners and unconventional social media moments.
Sen. John Kennedy speaks before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 21, 2022. (J. Scott Applewhite/Reuters)
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Kennedy ended the video with a line that only added to the internet’s fascination.
“My work here is done,” he said. “And I can see myself out.”
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday turned down an appeal from Virginia Democrats whose new voter-approved state election map was canceled by the state’s Supreme Court.
The justices made no comment, and the legal outcome came as no surprise.
The U.S. Supreme Court has no authority to review or reverse rulings by state judges interpreting their state’s constitution — unless the decision turned on federal law or the U.S. Constitution.
But the Virginia ruling came as a political shock, particularly after 3 million voters had cast ballots and narrowly approved a new election map that would favor Democrats in 10 of its 11 congressional districts.
That would have represented an increase of four seats for Democrats in the House of Representatives.
Even worse for Democrats, the court setback in Virginia came a week after the Supreme Court’s ruling in a Louisiana case had bolstered Republicans.
In a 6-3 decision, the justices reinterpreted the Voting Rights Act and freed Republican-controlled states in the South to dismantle districts that were drawn to favor Black Democrats.
In the two weeks since then, the GOP has flipped seven districts in Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida.
The Virginia Supreme Court decision pointed to a procedural flaw that turned on the definition of an “election.”
To amend the state Constitution, Virginia lawmakers must adopt the proposal twice — once before a “general election” and a second time after the election. It is then submitted to the voters.
Last fall, Democrats proposed to amend the state Constitution to permit a mid-decade redistricting.
However, by a 4-3 vote, the state justices said the General Assembly flubbed the first approval because it took place on Oct. 31 of last year, just five days before the election.
By then, they said, about 40% of the voters had cast early ballots.
In defense of the Legislature, the state’s attorneys said the proposed amendment was approved before election day, which complies with the state Constitution.
But the majority explained “the noun ‘election’ must be distinguished from the noun phrase ‘election day.’ ”
It reasoned that because early voters had already cast ballots before the constitutional amendment was first adopted, the proposal was not approved before the election.
The dissenters said the election took place on “election day” and the proposal had been adopted before that time.
The state’s lawyers adopted that view in their appeal and argued that under federal law, the election takes place on election day.
But the Supreme Court turned away the appeal with no comment.
The result is that a state amendment that won approval twice before both houses of the Legislature and in a statewide vote was judged to have failed.
The state says it will use the current map, which had elected Democrats to the House in six districts and Republicans in five.
The Trump administration this week instructed federal prosecutors to use terrorism statutes to target Mexican officials complicit in the narcotics trade, a significant escalation in its campaign against drug trafficking from Mexico, according to a U.S. official familiar with the remarks.
That new directive was announced Wednesday by Aakash Singh, an associate deputy attorney general, during an internal conference call with prosecutors in regional offices and represents an aggressive new tactic in the administration’s counternarcotics strategy that is almost certain to further strain its relationship with Mexico.
The initiative is the latest expansion of a hard-line policy that has defined President Trump’s agenda since his return to the White House last year, when he signed an executive order designating Latin American drug cartels as terrorist organizations. Within months, the U.S. military began blowing up boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing nearly 200 people the administration says are drug smugglers.
The Justice Department directive, which has not been previously reported, comes two weeks after federal prosecutors in New York indicted the governor of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, who is also a member of the country’s governing party, and nine other current and former Mexican officials. Days earlier, the death of two Central Intelligence Agency officers in a car crash in Mexico revealed a covert element of the White House’s clampdown on cartels. The developments have sharply intensified cross-border tensions.
Mr. Singh’s role includes setting priorities for the 93 U.S. attorneys, and his marching orders for them on Wednesday were blunt and strikingly undiplomatic.
“We should be tripling the number of indictments of corrupt government officials in Mexico who are using their power and their positions to enable terrorists and monsters who traffic in misery and poison,” he told colleagues, according to the U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Prior U.S. indictments accusing Latin American officials of drug crimes have frayed bilateral relationships that include cooperation on many fronts. But Mr. Singh seemed to relish that prospect as he urged prosecutors to charge Mexican officials with providing material support to terrorist organizations, in addition to drug crimes.
“If that is an unwelcome development for Mexican government officials and they are offended that we’re doing that, I cannot think of a single thing I care about less,” he said. “If we are shaming and embarrassing them in the process, then that is the cherry on top for us.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico has made clear she is not happy with the U.S. decision last month to charge a sitting Mexican governor, Rubén Rocha Moya, and other officials with collaborating with drug cartels. She has refused to arrest Mr. Rocha, criticizing U.S. officials for not providing sufficient evidence, and she has repeatedly framed the accusations against him as a potential affront to Mexican sovereignty.
Mr. Rocha, who has temporarily stepped down, has denied the charges, instead accusing the Trump administration of politically targeting him to undermine Ms. Sheinbaum’s political party.
On Friday, the Mexican government said that one of the other indicted officials, Gerardo Mérida Sánchez, the former state security chief in Sinaloa, turned himself in to U.S. authorities earlier this week, crossing the border into Arizona from Nogales, Mexico.
A second indicted official, Enrique Díaz, a former finance official in Sinaloa, was arrested in Europe, according to a Mexican official who spoke on the condition of anonymity without authorization to speak publicly.
Ms. Sheinbaum said on Friday that she had “had a cordial and excellent conversation with President Trump,” in which they “reaffirmed the work we’re doing on security and the talks on trade.”
While the Justice Department has not publicly signaled its intention to charge Mexican politicians with terrorism crimes, senior administration officials made clear in recent days that the indictment of Mr. Rocha and other officials would not be a one-off.
“They are just as much responsible for the death and destruction of record amounts of Americans by cooperating, by conspiring, by helping producing this poison to come across the border and come into our country,” Terrance C. Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said during a Senate hearing on Tuesday. He added, “This is just the start.”
Taking a harder line against Mexican politicians is a shift in U.S. strategy, which has largely focused on prosecuting cartel leaders. Most recently, Mexico has sent more than 90 detained cartel operatives to the United States, including the notorious cartel boss Rafael Caro Quintero, who was convicted of masterminding the murder of a D.E.A. agent more than 40 years ago.
Those transfers reflect stronger cooperation on security issues under the Trump and Sheinbaum administrations, particularly compared with the relationship under Ms. Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who pursued a less-lethal approach known as “hugs, not bullets.”
But the U.S. investigations into Mexican politicians have put Ms. Sheinbaum in a difficult political position. Many members of her dominant political party, Morena, have been deeply suspicious of the U.S. government, and several of the politicians who could be targeted belong to Morena.
Yet it seems likely that the cartel defendants Mexico sent to the United States could now help lead to such cases. Earlier this month, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, said that those drug traffickers had shared valuable intelligence.
“One consequence of having a lot of the leaders of some of these cartels brought here over the past year, in cooperation with the Mexican government, is some of them will likely want to cooperate,” Mr. Blanche said in an interview at a border security industry event. “That cooperation could lead to additional charges.”
By publicly signaling its intention to go after politicians who have helped cartels smuggle cocaine, fentanyl and other drugs into the United States, the Trump administration may have a number of goals, analysts said.
At face value, the threat could have a chilling effect on government officials who actively or tacitly support the trade, and whose political campaigns can be bankrolled by kingpins. But it could also give U.S. officials leverage as they negotiate the future of a trade alliance that includes Canada, Mexico and the United States ahead of a July 1 deadline. Mr. Trump’s frequent threats to carry out unilateral military action against the cartels on Mexican soil also hang over those talks.
“Many people will see this as a heavy-handed move against Mexico, which under Sheinbaum has done much more than any of her predecessors on these issues,” said Roberta S. Jacobson, who served as ambassador to Mexico during the Obama administration.
Because many of the officials the Justice Department could charge are from Ms. Sheinbaum’s Morena Party, “it could put her in perhaps the worst possible position,” Ms. Jacobson said.
Top officials in Ms. Sheinbaum’s government are frustrated with how the Trump administration has handled the indictment of Mr. Rocha, the Sinaloa governor, according to the Mexican official who spoke about Mr. Díaz.
Her government has handed over virtually every criminal defendant the Trump administration has asked for, this person said, yet it has received little information from their interrogations, making it difficult to collaborate on investigations. At the same time, Ms. Sheinbaum has publicly complained that the United States has denied dozens of extradition requests from Mexico.
The United States has charged top officials in Latin America with drug crimes for decades. Such cases have often scrambled power structures and political dynamics across the region, but the drug trade remains a behemoth that generates billions in profits, driven by strong demand from Americans.
High-profile prosecutions the Justice Department has pursued in recent years include the cases of Nicolás Maduro, the former leader of Venezuela seized in Caracas during a brazen operation carried out by U.S. Special Operations forces in January, and of Genaro García Luna, a former top law enforcement official in Mexico. Mr. Maduro is awaiting trial alongside his wife, Cilia Flores, in New York. Mr. García Luna was sentenced to 38 years in prison in 2024, following his conviction at trial in New York.
Another prominent case, involving Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, had an unusual twist. A little more than a year after a judge sentenced him to 45 years in prison for his role in the trade of 400 tons of cocaine, Mr. Trump pardoned him, heeding a request from Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime adviser, and other right-wing figures.
One American case against a senior Mexican official — Salvador Cienfuegos, a former defense minister who was arrested at the Los Angeles airport in 2020 and charged with having ties to the violent H-2 cartel — backfired badly. The Justice Department dropped its charges against Mr. Cienfuegos under pressure from the Mexican government, which threatened to expel U.S. agents and subsequently passed legislation that severely restricted bilateral security cooperation.
Going forward, Mr. Singh, a top aide to Mr. Blanche known for an abrasive style, said that the Justice Department intended to take a zero-leniency approach. In addition to charging politicians with drug and firearms felonies, which can lead to lengthy prison terms, prosecutors should seek to also charge them with material support for terrorist groups, he said.
Convictions can result in prison terms of up to 15 years, or life, if the underlying offense resulted in a death.
But so far, the Justice Department has used terrorism charges sparingly against cartels. A year ago, prosecutors charged two leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel with material support for terrorism in connection with their alleged efforts to smuggle large amounts of drugs into the United States.
Mr. Singh said the department wanted to pursue more of those cases. “We need to be treating these people like the terrorists they are,” he said.
Maria Abi-Habib contributed reporting.
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