White House Czars

Czar is not an official title but a nickname for an official named to take charge of one problem that cuts across many agencies. The term goes back to Franklin Roosevelt's wartime production and price officials, and it became common in 1973, when Richard Nixon named an energy czar during the oil crisis. Congress created the best-known one by law in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988: the Director of National Drug Control Policy, still called the drug czar, who must be confirmed by the Senate.

Most czars, however, are White House staff or special advisers who are not confirmed by the Senate. Presidents of both parties have used them for crises and priorities, such as an Ebola response coordinator in 2014, a COVID-19 response coordinator in 2021, and a border czar and an AI and crypto czar in 2025, along with a pardon czar. Some, like the AI and crypto czar, have served as special government employees, a status that lets private-sector experts work part time for the government under lighter ethics rules.

Critics in Congress, especially from the party out of power, argue that czars wield real power without Senate confirmation or accountability to Congress, bypassing the Appointments Clause. Lawmakers counted about three dozen czar titles under Barack Obama, and an April 2011 spending law cut off funds for four of them. Supporters say czars let a President focus attention on urgent problems and cut through agency turf battles, and that most simply advise rather than give orders. Czars without legal authority often struggle to make departments follow their lead.