Lesson No. 1, perhaps, in taking a role in the administration of President Donald Trump: If you’ve previously described yourself in social media posts as a “progressive, Bernie Sanders fan” and a “political liberal, closest to Elizabeth Warren,” best delete those posts if you want to stay employed.
Otherwise, as Bay Area physician and medical-school professor Dr. Vinay Prasad appears to have learned, you may get “Loomered” right out of a job.
Prasad’s posts from 2021 and 2022 are still up on social media platform X. But he’s out from his leadership role at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, after right-wing conspiracy theorist, social media influencer and Trump loyalist Laura Loomer exposed his posts in support of iconic liberal U.S. Senators Sanders and Warren.
Prasad, who until earlier this year headed a currently paused cancer-drugs and health-policy lab at UC San Francisco and remains a professor at the school, resigned from the FDA on Tuesday, after Loomer launched a campaign July 20 to oust him. Loomer labeled him on X as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and “The Progressive Leftist Saboteur Undermining President Trump’s FDA.”
Prasad did not immediately respond to requests from this news organization for comment.
“I’ve never seen anything like it, where this kind of personal loyalty test has become so important,” said San Jose State University emeritus professor of political science Larry Gerston. “That’s the way the Trump administration works. You see it very clearly in the FDA where their politics take precedent over everything else. There are lives affected by this and it doesn’t matter.”
The FDA and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Gerston’s criticisms.
The FDA in May named Prasad head of its Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, which regulates vaccines and gene therapies. He replaced Dr. Peter Marks, who resigned in March saying Health and Human Services Secretary and vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” according to his letter of resignation obtained by NPR.
During the Biden administration, Prasad repeatedly attacked Marks on social media, painting Marks’ regulatory approach to COVID as heavy handed and lacking foundation in science. In blog entries, social media posts and op-eds, Prasad highlighted adverse effects from COVID vaccines, assailed vaccine mandates for children, and criticized Biden’s response to the pandemic. Still, he described himself as “a firm supporter of encouraging and persuading adults to get vaccinated.”
Prasad’s criticisms of Marks, government COVID responses and Biden advisers’ “COVID zealotry” may have made him attractive to the Trump administration until recently — the FDA gave him another big job in June as its chief medical and science officer. But Loomer on her “Loomered” website called his views on student loan forgiveness, the U.S. border, abortion, taxes and health care funding “a direct affront to the conservative principles underpinning Trump’s agenda.” She also pointed to podcasts in which Prasad appeared to criticize Trump.
In the wake of Loomer’s exposure of Prasad’s statements, but just days before he resigned, FDA chief Martin Makary sang his praises.
“There’s not a political bone to his body,” Makary told Politico. “He’s an impeccable scientist, I think one of the greatest scientific minds of our generation. Vinay Prasad has done a phenomenal job. His staff love him. The culture there is much improved, and we’re seeing great decisions coming out of the FDA.”
In response to questions about the reasons for Prasad’s resignation, FDA spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement, “Dr. Prasad did not want to be a distraction to the great work of the FDA in the Trump administration and has decided to return to California and spend more time with his family.” Nixon thanked Prasad for “the many important reforms he was able to achieve in his time at FDA.”
Prasad’s departure from the FDA also followed a controversial, soon-reversed decision by the agency to take off the market a gene therapy drug for muscular dystrophy, produced by Sarepta Therapeutics, after two children died out of 1,000 patients treated. Critics, including parents, claimed the FDA ignored clear benefits from the therapy.
For Trump, facing divisions among his supporters over issues including wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and his administration’s access to files related to the late accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, catering to Loomer offers a way to quiet discontent, said Dan Schnur, a lecturer at UC Berkeley and a former Republican political consultant. “He knows that he’s never going to be able to make them happy on every issue,” Schnur said. “If the true MAGA believers are upset about Ukraine or Gaza or Epstein, this is a pretty painless way to pacify them.”
Loomer appears to wield “a fairly significant amount of influence on administration personnel,” Schnur said. But because Trump “is the first social media president,” Schnur added, “it shouldn’t be surprising that social media influencers have a lot more clout with him.”
Prasad is not the only apparent victim of Loomer, a provocateur close to Trump. In April, Trump fired six National Security Council officials after Loomer came to the White House and claimed they were disloyal to him, the New York Times reported. Trump called Loomer “a great patriot” but denied she was involved in the terminations.
The FDA, in a since-deleted profile of Prasad, called attention to his many accomplishments, including publication of more than 500 academic articles, extensive research on cancer treatment, presentations at hundreds of medical conferences, and authorship of two books on health care.
To Gerston, Prasad’s resignation reflects a consistent approach by the Trump administration across appointments in his cabinet and regulatory agencies.
“It’s pretty simple if you think about it,” Gerston said. “It’s politics over proficiency.”
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