Ai czar, border czar, health czar…
I see it mentioned all the time in the US media but also elsewhere recently, where does this come from?
Czar is historicly the title of Russian rulers. Which these people clearly aren’t, so why the use of this term?
Is it some sort of right wing dogwistle?
I think usually it refers to someone who is given broad powers over a certain area of interest without necessarily sticking to a pre-defined title.
During event organization we would sometimes refer to the people who enforce parking rules as “parking czars”.
And there’s NYC’s “Rat Czar” who is responsible for tackling the city’s rat problem