Trump tasks son's hunting pal with keeping the US food supply safe

Yahoo

25-02-2025

The acting federal government official overseeing the vast majority of the US's food supply is a Florida attorney who reportedly is a hunting buddy of Donald Trump Jr, the president's eldest child and namesake.
As Vanity Fair reported, acting deputy commissioner for human foods at the Food and Drug Administration Kyle Diamantas will be responsible for overseeing all FDA activities related to nutrition and food safety for the elder Donald Trump's second presidential administration.
The FDA's website says the 37-year-old's role has authority over all entities and operations within the Human Foods Program. Duties include resource allocation, risk prioritization strategies, decision-making, policy initiatives and major response activities concerning human foods.
Diamantas will also oversee food resources in the agency's office of inspections and investigations in a post that does not require Senate approval. And, as reported by Vanity Fair on Monday, Diamantas will oversee approximately 80% of the country's food supply.
In reporting on his friendship with the president's son, Vanity Fair pointed to a photograph of Trump Jr and Diamantas together in 2021, grinning while holding dead wild turkeys.
Diamantas holds a juris doctorate from the University of Florida's Levin College of Law and a bachelor's in pre-law political science from the University of Central Florida.
In 2024, he became a partner at Jones Day law firm in Miami, having joined the firm three years earlier, according to his LinkedIn page.
Vanity Fair asserted it was unclear 'what skills … Diamantas will bring' to his role in Trump's administration. But Food Safety Magazine reported that Diamantas has authored several articles on food regulatory topics. And in his now-archived Jones Day biography reported by Vanity Fair, he is described as having 'more than 10 years of experience advising food, cosmetic, dietary supplement, drug, and other life sciences and consumer goods clients on a wide range of regulatory, compliance, and enforcement matters'.
The FDA's website states that Diamantas has 'extensive experience' working with various federal and state agencies and policymakers, scientific organizations, consumer advocacy groups and industry stakeholders.
The website also claims he has 'wide-ranging experience on matters spanning regulatory, compliance, investigative, enforcement, rule making and legislation'.
Bloomberg recently reported that Diamantas in November was part of a team that wrote about a new post-market safety assessment group established by the FDA to review chemicals in food.
Diamantas's appointment comes as the FDA grapples with investigating an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infections linked to frozen supplemental shakes. The outbreak had resulted in 12 reported deaths as of Monday.
The former head of the FDA's food division, Jim Jones, resigned on 17 February after the Trump administration laid off 89 staffers in that division. Jones described the layoffs as 'indiscriminate'.
In his resignation letter, obtained by Bloomberg, Jones reportedly expressed that he was 'looking forward to working to pursue the department's agenda of improving the health of Americans by reducing diet-related chronic disease and risks from chemicals in food'.
However, he felt that due to the new administration's 'disdain for the very people' needed to make these changes, it would be 'fruitless for me to continue in this role'.