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# Disappointed Califf on Possible Disruption at FDA
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/disappointed-califf-on-possible-disruption-at-fda/
- Published: 2024-11-12T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T14:46:43.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5158170

FDA commissioner **Robert Califf** says he is “personally disappointed” in the election results that will see another Trump administration overseeing the agency. Speaking during a virtual keynote address at the Friends of Cancer Research 11/12, Califf said that “it’s pretty clear that the gist of \[the Trump\] administration, from everything that's been said, is to change a lot of things, and how it gets changed depends on who gets appointed in the key positions and how the various policies play out.”

Califf said that currently FDA is in a good position operationally. “From the FDA perspective, we sort of got all engines on go right now. We've done a massive reorganization… We're hiring pretty well, and not having trouble getting very talented people… So, you know, in times of changing chaos, there’s also opportunity.” He added that there are a lot of things that those in current leadership positions in the health agencies would have liked to have changed but couldn’t due to the gridlock of various interests that make it difficult to change.

Asked about threats from president-elect **Donald Trump**’s top health advisor **Robert F. Kennedy Jr.** that some “departments” and “some categories of workers” at FDA have to go because they are not doing their job, Califf said he stands by the people who work at FDA. “They’re good people, they’re hard working, and they want what’s best for the American public,” he said during his keynote address. “I have no question about that.”

What kind of qualities does Califf hope to see in the next FDA commissioner? “I think ability to function as an executive is going to be a very important one,” he said. “What I mean by executive function is the ability to listen to people with disparate points of view and take in and learn in a new environment and then make executive decisions." Another attribute that should be important with the new commissioner is recognizing that there is such a thing as “expertise,” Califf continued. Today’s society struggles with making decisions based on “feelings at any given moment in time, versus analyzing things and coming up with an opinion, particularly as it relates to issues that affect our long-term outcomes and the role of experts, which is really being questioned right now in a major way,” he said. “And I’m not saying that experts are always right. In fact, experts are often wrong… So I’d say those are the main things — executive function, a commitment to using evidence to make decisions, and really believing that there is such a thing as expertise.”