President Trump Does a 180-Degree Turn to Now Support FISA Section 702’s Spying on Americans

Over the last few months, it has been abundantly clear that President Donald Trump has abandoned his campaign promises of no new wars, transparency in the federal government, draining the swamp, and strengthening the civil liberties of Americans. Aside from his waging war against Iran on behalf of his buddy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, another way to know for sure that the president is compromised is to look at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702 renewal debate.

Two years ago when the surveillance measure was up for renewal (under President Joe Biden), he said, “KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS.” He was, of course, referring to when the Barack Obama administration utilized the surveillance law to spy on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and gather information for the Russia collaboration investigation in favor of Hillary Clinton (Trump now claims that it was FISA Title I and not Section 702, but either way, the whole apparatus needs to be eliminated). Now, all of a sudden, the president is in favor of the government using this measure, and it seems to be that you go into politics with good intentions, only to be corrupted when you get into power (the system itself is the problem). He stated that he needs these tools to make the military successful and that they were used for the operations in Venezuela and Iran.

So, because Trump says it and claimed that generals are warning him that failure to renew this tool would be catastrophic, Republicans are now supposed to just fall in line and support it (like good little sheep). In fact, his rallying cry around the renewal bill was, “I am asking Republicans to UNIFY, and vote together on the test vote to bring a clean Bill to the floor. We need to stick together when this Bill comes before the House Rules Committee today to keep it CLEAN!.” Clearly, the deep state is still running the show, and Trump is nothing more than a puppet to continue the status quo on behalf of the powers that be, and his switch on this topic is nothing less than a complete betrayal of the American people (Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who once opposed Section 702, has remained silent and is expected to support the renewal now that she is in the cabinet).

Although many Republican House of Representatives members pushed back against the president in getting a long-term extension passed, Section 702 has been stretched until April 30, at which time, further debate and congressional votes will need to make the measure last through into next year. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe was unable to convince enough congressmen to get in line, but there is little doubt that the measure will be continued in some way after another round of votes occurs (whether through blackmail, bribery, or some other form of persuasion). The argument that “70% of the CIA’s illicit synthetic drug disruptions in 2023 stemmed from FISA 702 data,” a Taylor Swift concert was saved in 2024, and 60% of the president’s daily briefings allegedly come from Section 702 were not enough to get a clean bill passed. Senator Ron Wyden (Democrat from Oregon) has been an advocate for reforming Section 702 for years, and he is confident that nothing will pass Congress without some form of change from the way that the tool has historically been used. We will see.

So, why should anyone care about whether or not a new bill passes? The most important aspect of this is the Constitution and our cherished rights. The Fourth Amendment specifically states, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Section 702 violates this by allowing the federal government to have access to Americans’ phone conversations, emails, and other data without any form of warrant (just blank authorization from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court), and the information is swept up as a result of the government surveilling foreign individuals. Therefore, if the government makes the case that a “significant purpose” (not the entirety) of an investigation is to obtain foreign intelligence (including “information related to . . . the conduct of the foreign affairs of the United States”), it can target an individual, even if the government is unsure whether the person is a terrorist (basically, it can just spy on anyone overseas for any reason).

Because of modern technology and the ability to communicate with people overseas (perhaps family members, journalists for an international story, or business dealings), this means that a large number of American citizens will also be spied on as a result. The CIA, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Security Agency (NSA), and National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) can then sift through the information collected on Americans (in a database) to investigate them for crimes or other intelligence-gathering purposes, via text messages, emails, and phone calls. These “backdoor searches,” though highly unconstitutional and a breach of privacy, have been a part of the surveillance state for quite some time. In fact, it is estimated that the FBI has abused its power and targeted protesters, both conservative and liberal, associated with the January 6^th Capitol event and the George Floyd incident around 300,000 times using Section 702 (at least 278,000 times between 2020 and early 2022, and perhaps as many as 3.4 million times from December 2020 to November 2021), and from December 2021 to November 2022, there were 119,383 searches of Americans’ data from this tool (it has decreased year over year to about 7,413 queries from December 2024 to November 2025). Additionally, the warrantless searches have included: a United States senator, state senator, journalists, political commentators, 19,000 donors to congressional campaigns, an FBI employee’s family, and 6,800 Social Security numbers. Although some revisions were made in 2024 under the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA) to put in procedural changes for the FBI in obtaining “backdoor searches,” these changes did not really prevent surveillance of Americans or change much of anything (more like a feel-good measure, and it was discovered that there was a tool developed by the FBI to bypass the procedures and still be able to access Americans’ data).

It is not just the federal government partnering with large corporations or demanding that businesses hand over the data that is concerning (or the Patriot Act and all of its violations of the Constitution). No, it has been revealed that the FBI under Kash Patel has been purchasing information from private data brokers to be able to surveil Americans and even obtain cell phone location data. This effectively allows the FBI to acquire our personal information by bypassing the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement (the government is not obtaining the information directly from the corporations, but rather, the broker is gathering the data, which you consent to by clicking the “Agree” box on websites, and selling it to the government). As part of the Section 702 debate, Representative Warren Davidson (Republican from Ohio) introduced an amendment to close this loophole of purchasing data from a broker, though it will very unlikely be included in any final version that is passed later this month. Regardless, this is unconstitutional, as it does not matter how mindless people are with accepting terms online, and a specific warrant (not a blank one or authorization for a bulk search) is required when the government is investigating an individual for their information.

In the next couple weeks, Congress will be debating Section 702, likely without large-scale coverage in the corporate or alternative news, but this is an important topic (though, it may seem boring to most). Allowing the government to spy on Americans without a warrant or probable cause of a crime is dangerous. In a free society, this should not even be a discussion, and surveillance against Americans should be banned, period (“no ifs, ands, or buts”). We either live in a free country, or we do not. Any violation of our rights threatens our very being, but Section 702 is a gross desecration of the Fourth Amendment. Watching Trump supporters backpedal on this issue and support (or remain silent on) what they previously opposed because their dear leader told them to is disgusting, especially because said leader only became comfortable with these tools when he gained power for himself (trust the king with this power, and he will definitely not abuse it). Hopefully enough Republicans can stand with the people and kill any passage of Section 702, but given the bipartisan nature of surveillance tools, that is highly unlikely. King George III would be proud (and jealous) of the surveillance state that the federal government has built after the September 11, 2001 attacks. It is almost like American citizens have gone back to living under the same tyranny that existed prior to 1776, and with advanced technology, the situation is far worse than anything that the colonists and our founding fathers faced.

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website. If you would like to read my previous writings on Section 702 (from 2023 and 2024), please see here, here, and here.