As federal health agencies are gutted with abandon, a Florida attorney with a history of hunting with the president's son has been put in charge of food safety at the FDA, overseeing the nation's food supply, infant formula, and more.
Late last week, amid mass purges of key personnel at the nation's health agencies, a Florida attorney with a surprisingly slim résumé was named acting 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.
Diamantas's LinkedIn profile is a study in brevity. 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." Prior to that job, he worked as a senior associate at the Orlando office of the law firm Baker Donelson.
Diamantas's limited experience for such a major regulatory position, when compared with the experience of his predecessor, appears to have been offset by another significant qualification. The young attorney is a friend and hunting buddy of Donald Trump Jr., the president's firstborn son, Vanity Fair has learned.
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.
Osceola turkeys, known for their striking plumage, were long ago on the brink of extinction due to overhunting and habitat destruction. According to the Florida Wildlife Federation, they are named after Chief Osceola of the Seminole Indian Nation.
Though the FDA position appears to be Diamantas's first government job, the Osceola was not his first dead bird. In November 2015, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers posted an image of a dead duck captioned: "'A Saturday morning Redhead.' Shared by Kyle Diamantas here."