{"id":20578,"date":"2026-01-10T18:49:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T17:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=20578"},"modified":"2026-02-17T20:16:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T19:16:01","slug":"senators-confirm-trumps-drug-czar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2026\/01\/senators-confirm-trumps-drug-czar\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators confirm Trump\u2019s drug czar"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

By\u00a0Amanda Friedman and Carmen Paun\u00a0 – Politico – 01\/06\/2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Former Fox News contributor Sara Carter will oversee the White House drug policy agenda.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
The Senate confirmed journalist Sara Carter to oversee federal drug policy by a 52-48 vote Tuesday.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
\n
\n

A former Fox News contributor who has reported on drug trafficking, Carter will lead the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy as President Donald Trump\u2019s top drug policy adviser. In his second term, Trump has used the fight against illicit drug trafficking to depose Venezuela\u2019s president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, and to threaten other countries in the region with military action.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Trump touted Carter\u2019s coverage\u00a0of the illegal drug trade\u00a0when he tapped her for the job last March.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy work in the frontlines wasn\u2019t just about telling stories, it was about mapping the enemy,\u201d\u00a0Carter told senators in the Judiciary Committee\u00a0during her September nomination hearing. She touted her work covering drug cartels and said Trump\u2019s border crackdown reduced the flow of drugs like fentanyl into the United States. That crackdown also reduced the flow of U.S. weapons into Mexico, she argued, which often end up in cartels\u2019 possession.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen these predatory criminal empires operate with impunity in our hemisphere. That impunity ends now,\u201d Carter told senators. \u201cThis is not just a public health crisis, it\u2019s a chemical war being waged against the American people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As head of ONDCP, Carter will play a crucial role in overseeing federal policy and funding related to drug trafficking, substance use prevention, treatment and recovery.<\/span><\/p>\n

But some Democrats don\u2019t think she\u2019s the right person for the role.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Judiciary Committee\u2019s top Democrat, pointed to Carter\u2019s lack of government, public health or law enforcement experience, which he said makes her unqualified for ONDCP\u2019s top job.<\/span><\/p>\n

Carter said that while she isn\u2019t \u201ca doctor, a general or a lawyer,\u201d she is a \u201cmore than two-decade investigative journalist who was on the ground in the field, witnessing firsthand what these cartels and what these terrorist organizations have not only done to our nation and to the rest of the world, but to our children.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While her Senate testimony largely focused on stopping the supply of drugs by aggressive action against foreign drug cartels, Carter also pointed to reducing domestic demand for drugs \u201cthrough robust prevention, treatment and recovery support.\u201d She said educators, faith and community leaders and law enforcement need to work together to prevent drug use by creating a \u201cculture of resilience, where staying drug-free is the norm.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Judiciary Committee\u00a0advanced Carter\u2019s nomination\u00a0on a 12-10 party-line vote in October.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Carter\u2019s confirmation comes weeks after Trump signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to speed efforts to expand access to marijuana for medical purposes. While Carter won\u2019t control the process of rescheduling the drug that\u2019s necessary to make it more widely available to medical researchers and patients, she could play a key role in influencing medical marijuana policy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though she has previously championed cannabis for \u201cmedicinal purposes and medical reasons,\u201d Carter\u00a0did not confirm\u00a0whether she\u2019d work to help legalize medical marijuana on the federal level in her written response to a follow-up question from Judiciary Committee members after her nomination hearing. Instead, Carter wrote that she\u2019d \u201ccomply with all federal laws\u201d and \u201censure an examination of all the facts and evidence as part of any scheduling or policy actions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Lead Article: President Donald Trump touted Sara Carter\u2019s journalistic coverage of the illegal drug trade when he tapped her for the job last March. | Jenny Kane\/AP<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/01\/06\/congress\/senators-confirm-trumps-drug-czar-00713038<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Amanda Friedman and Carmen Paun\u00a0 – Politico – 01\/06\/2026 Former Fox News contributor Sara Carter will oversee the White House drug policy agenda. The Senate confirmed journalist Sara Carter to oversee federal drug policy by a 52-48 vote Tuesday. A former Fox News contributor who has reported on drug trafficking, Carter will lead the White […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political-sector","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20579,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20578\/revisions\/20579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}