Former Fox News contributor Sara Carter was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday as the 10th director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, in a 52-48 vote.
The role, often referred to as “drug czar,” is particularly in focus as the Trump administration intensifies its declared war on illicit drug trafficking, including its recent capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, whom the administration has accused of narco-terrorism.
U.S. President Donald Trump has also prioritized combating fentanyl trafficking from America’s southern and northern borders—an issue Carter has reported on extensively.
Additionally, Carter, like Trump, supports expanding access to marijuana for medicinal purposes. Last month, the president signed an executive order to improve federal research on medical marijuana and cannabidiol use.
While both Trump and Carter have pointed to her decades-long coverage of drug cartels as a critical qualification for the position, opponents argue that her lack of government, public health and law enforcement experience should give pause.
“My work in the frontlines wasn’t just about telling stories, it was about mapping the enemy,” Carter said in September during her Judiciary Committee hearing.
“I have seen these predatory criminal empires operate with impunity in our hemisphere. That impunity ends now,” Carter told the committee, which advanced her nomination along a party-line vote.
“This is not just a public health crisis,” she said. “It’s a chemical war being waged against the American people.”
Carter has been an outspoken supporter of Israel since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. Two days after, she shared her experience visiting the Jewish state in June 2023, describing the proximity of Hamas to the Gaza border communities and decrying the Biden administration’s treatment of Israel as a “pariah.”
She also covered anti-Israel college protests for Fox News and has publicly criticized fellow conservative members of the media who have turned to antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories.
