9

President Trump has selected Sara Carter, a conservative journalist and Fox News contributor, as the nation’s next drug czar.

Carter’s selection comes as a surprise: Her background is not in drug policy, public health, or law enforcement, and she has never served in government. Her journalism in the past decade, however, has been staunchly pro-Trump, with a particular emphasis on border issues and former President Biden’s perceived failure to stem illegal immigration and the trafficking of illicit drugs.

“From Afghanistan to our Border, Sarah’s relentless pursuit of Justice, especially in tackling the Fentanyl and Opioid Crisis, has exposed terrorists, drug lords, and sex traffickers,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social announcing her nomination on Friday afternoon. “As our next Drug Czar, Sara will lead the charge to protect our Nation, and save our children from the scourge of drugs.”

If confirmed by the Senate, Carter would oversee the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, an executive office housed across the street from the West Wing that makes policy recommendations and coordinates efforts between various federal agencies focused on substance use, both from a law enforcement and public health perspective.

Carter achieved recognition in her early journalism career, receiving the National Headliner Award twice and earning additional honors from the Society of Professional Journalists for a series exposing the brutality of two Mexican drug cartels.

More recently, her journalism has taken a distinctly rightward turn. Beyond her role with Fox News, she has spoken at the Conservative Political Action Conference and is a close ally of Tom Homan, who is overseeing Trump’s efforts to deport millions of illegal immigrants.

Carter’s Fox News profile and other sources list her as a founder of Border911.com, a website associated with Homan’s nonprofit, which has sponsored numerous events about border security — including, notably, several focused on fentanyl trafficking.

She appeared on Fox News as recently as March 23, though a network spokesman reached out following this story’s publication to clarify that Carter is “no longer a Fox News contributor effective today following this announcement.” A page on the Fox News website that previously displayed her biography returned an error message as of late Friday afternoon.

Carter also maintains an active website and podcast. In the most recent edition, released on Tuesday, she appears to downplay the significance of a major national security breakdown in which administration officials included a magazine editor on a chain of messages detailing planned airstrikes in Yemen. Carter referred to Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in question, as a “terrible reporter.”

At the White House, Carter would lead an office with an uncertain future. ONDCP’s staff size has diminished significantly since Trump took office. Perhaps more importantly, Project 2025, a right-wing policy outline for Trump’s second term, proposes substantially reducing the office’s influence by eventually transferring two key grant programs it oversees to the Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services.

“It is vital that the ONDCP Director ensure in the immediate term that these grant programs are funding the President’s drug control priorities and not woke nonprofits with leftist policy agendas,” the document reads.

One of the authors of that section, former ONDCP official Art Kleinschmidt, was recently appointed principal deputy director at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, according to three sources familiar with the move. SAMHSA’s future, however, is also cloudy in light of the recently announced reorganization of HHS, its parent agency.

Carter would be the first woman to serve as drug czar in a non-acting capacity. If confirmed, she would succeed Rahul Gupta, a physician and West Virginia’s former health commissioner, who in July 2021 was appointed by Biden.
According to The Wrap, 21 Fox News personalities had been selected for a major Trump administration post. Carter makes it 22.