One of the more tragic elements of the early Trump administration is that many of us are just starting to appreciate just how much our federal government is called on to do for us. We all knew that the feds oversaw the nation’s skies and directed air traffic, few of us thought about how many people had to be involved and how critical they were. Even fewer knew of various positions within established agencies like the Food and Drug Agency, where “the FDA” has an office for a commissioner responsible solely for “human foods” (As opposed, I suppose, to cattle food, etc.) This position is one of those that are all too thankless. The only time we might hear about such an office is if things go wrong with our food safety, never if things are running perfectly. Except now we do hear about the office and it’s only to learn that a job overseeing one of the most critical links in national infrastructure – food distribution – is being given to a very young attorney with no government experience, who just happens to be Donald Trump Jr.’s hunting buddy. According to a new report in Vanity Fair:
Regarding the deputy commissioner for human foods at the Food and Drug Administration. The role, which is not subject to Senate approval, is an important one. In it, Kyle Diamantas, 37, will be responsible for ensuring the safety of roughly 80% of the nation’s food supply. The already-overtaxed division is vital to public health, responsible for everything from overseeing the complex manufacturing of infant formula to responding to deadly bacterial contamination and managing food supplies in the wake of hurricanes and floods.
Ah, yes. Want to see this nation in the midst of a crisis very fast? Have one of the makers of baby formula have a problem with bacteria and get shutdown with sudden disease and shortages leading to possible hunger. As I said, we don’t think of these agencies at all until something goes wrong. But this is one agency where if something did go wrong, then the stakes couldn’t possibly be higher. Perhaps we never hear much about it because we haven’t had a major issue due to the fact that most administrations see to it that these positions are filled by only the most capable people. But Diamantas isn’t much more than a standard issue lawyer:
He received a law degree from the University of Florida in 2013. He started his next-listed job, as an attorney at the law firm Jones Day in Miami, in 2021, ascending to partner last year. His now archived Jones Day bio described him 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.
So he did some regulatory law? Plain old vanilla administrative law stuff, and defending products is a lot different than defending the American people from products, The job descriptions couldn’t be more counter, considering the future of one entity versus every other entity.
But what Diamantas lacks in real experience, he makes up for in real connections.
In March 2021, the two men were photographed holding dead Osceola wild turkeys and grinning. A post on X by Mike Tussey, the founder of the hunting outfit Osceola Outdoors, which also organizes hunts of alligators and hogs, described the scene as follows: “Don Jr. With his good friend Kyle Diamantas! Kyle’s first Osceola!” A photograph of Trump Jr., Diamantas, and Tussey, with a single turkey, is also featured in a gallery of pictures on Osceola Outdoors’s website.
https://t.co/xRusGYF9KC Don Jr. With his good friend Kyle Diamantas! Kyle's first Osceola! #nomadoutdoor #nwtf #nra #mossyoak #benelli_usa #tetra @DonaldJTrumpJr pic.twitter.com/euJoGQDNfx
— mike tussey (@osceolaoutdoors) March 24, 2021
So situation all too normal in the Trump administration. Trump fires a black four-star general who had been appointed as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, all to raise up a white man who was literally unqualified – he will literally need a waiver, to get the job. He decries all things “DEI” – which, by its strictest terms is nothing more than ensuring that everyone gets considered, decries them as unfair to white men (Presumably). And then when it comes time to fill jobs with only the most capable people, he will appoint someone without an hour of government experience, not one. But only if the guy is a partner in a historically conservative firm in Jones, Day and a good friend of his son…
This is all too normal. Hopefully, this department didn’t suffer a ton of terminations and can continue on nearly running itself. I would never want to test just how important this group’s oversight had been.
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😃 Oh, goody! An HHS Sec who wants us all to get deathly ill on raw milk coupled with an FDA food guy who will undoubtedly claim that any regulations on raw milk production and sales would be an undue burden on the industry! Drink up, ‘Murrica!! 😋🥛