Two years ago, as policymakers weighed the future of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, then-candidate Donald Trump offered some advice. “KILL FISA,” he wrote to his social media platform, claiming it had been “illegally” used against him.
In reality, no one had ever illegally used the surveillance law against the Republican, and officials ignored his call to “kill” it. This year, however, the president changed his mind about FISA’s merits.
As recently as March, as policymakers weighed an extension of Section 702 of the law, which is designed to allow for warrantless wiretaps of non-U.S. citizens, the president implored Congress to pass a “clean” bill that left the status quo in place. “It is more important than ever that we remain vigilant, PROTECT our Homeland, Troops, and Diplomats stationed abroad, and maintain our ability to quickly stop bad actors seeking to cause harm to our People and our Country,” he wrote online. “The fact is, whether you like FISA or not, it is extremely important to our Military.”
A month later, Trump pressed further for a FISA extension. “I have spoken to many Generals about this, and they consider it VITAL,” he wrote. “Not one said, even tacitly, that they can do without it.”
As recently as Wednesday of last week, two days before the deadline, the president again declared that FISA and Section 702 are “very important to our Military and keeping the American People safe.”
Trump nevertheless screwed up the whole process, installing Bill Pulte, the highly controversial director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director of national intelligence and sparking a backlash that prevented a bipartisan effort to extend FISA ahead of Friday’s deadline.
Over the weekend, those looking to Trump for guidance on how he’d rescue this policy were left wanting. In fact, he appeared eager to move in the opposite direction.