It’s become rather difficult to keep track of all the Fox News veterans who have joined Donald Trump’s team during his second term. A year ago, The New York Times published a tally and found 19 “former Fox News hosts, commentators, on-air medical experts, producers and other personnel” who had landed jobs in the Republican administration. Soon after, Media Matters published a revised total, putting the number at 20.
That list did not include Attorney General Pam Bondi, who briefly moonlighted as a guest host of a Fox News program while she was serving as Florida’s chief law enforcement official.
The list has continued to grow. In March, the president appointed Fox News personalities Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo to the Kennedy Center board. A month later, he appointed Bo Dietl, another Fox vet, to serve on a Department of Homeland Security advisory council. The month after that, Trump tapped Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro to serve as a U.S. attorney.
As 2026 gets underway, the list is growing once again. Politico reported:
The Senate confirmed journalist Sara Carter to oversee federal drug policy by a 52-48 vote Tuesday.
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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’s top drug policy adviser.
The final vote in the chamber fell largely along party lines, though Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voted with the Democratic minority against the nominee.
Every previous head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy — the position generally known as the nation’s “drug czar” — had served in some kind of public office before taking the job, usually having worked in law enforcement, the military, public health agencies or some combination thereof.
Carter, however, covered the drug trade for Fox News for many years — and for Trump and 52 Senate Republicans, that was enough. (I’ve covered health care policy for many years, though I suspect GOP senators might balk if someone nominated me to serve as the secretary of health and human services.)
The president’s Team of Amateurs was a problem for the administration last year. There’s no reason to believe things will get any better this year.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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