Conservative obliterates Trump's privacy rights hypocrisy

President Donald Trump once opposed government surveillance — at least the kind he claimed was directed against him.

“KILL FISA," Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2024. "IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS."

But now that Trump can surveil rather than be surveilled, a conservative is calling him out over his surveillance state.

“It's been two years and five days since Trump wrote that, but it might as well have been another lifetime,” said Eric Boehm, a reporter at Reason who covers economic policy, trade policy and elections. “On Wednesday, Trump again took to Truth Social as Congress was debating a possible extension to Section 702 of FISA, which allows intelligence services to scoop up electronic communications between Americans and individuals overseas.”

Trump is now looking to extend FISA surveillance powers, even as other privacy-minded members of the Republican Party oppose that effort. The extension would permit the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI and other agencies to collect and analyze huge swathes of overseas communications without a warrant. It also sweeps up the conversations of any Americans who interact with international targets for surveillance.

"I am willing to risk the giving up of my Rights and Privileges as a Citizen for our Great Military and Country!" Trump wrote. "We need to stick together when this Bill comes before the House Rules Committee today to keep it CLEAN!"

Boehm has written for conservative publications like The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Signal and The Washington Examiner and is the a featured speaker at seminars hosted by The Libertarian Institute and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). And he vehemently opposes what he calls Trump’s overreaches in government power.

“It sure would be nice if Trump, who was once a prominent target of these surveillance powers, were willing to advocate for changes,” said Boehm. “Alas, now that those powers are ones he gets to wield, there is no need for consistency or principles.”

Last year The Conversation raised alarms over Trump potentially abusing civil liberties when staffers from the Department of Government Efficiency gained access to the agency’s databases — and then shortly thereafter the Department of Homeland Security obtained access to the same Internal Revenue Service tax data.

"Once confined to separate bureaucracies, data now flows freely through a network of interagency agreements, outsourcing contracts and commercial partnerships built up in recent decades," said Nicole M. Bennett, a Ph.D. Candidate in Geography and Assistant Director at Indiana University's Center for Refugee Studies.

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