President Donald Trump credited the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as a critical tool in the successful campaign to degrade and dismantle Iran’s military and nuclear capabilities on Sunday, declaring that intelligence gathered under the authority had made the American military operation significantly safer and more effective — an assessment that led him to support the act’s renewal despite his own bitter personal history with its misuse against him.
The remarks came during an interview on Fox News’ The Sunday Briefing, in the context of a broader discussion about Section 702 of FISA, which was set to expire imminently and whose renewal faced resistance from portions of the Republican coalition skeptical of expanding government surveillance powers.
Anchor Jacqui Heinrich had raised the FISA question in connection with the previous night’s attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, asking whether the heightened threat environment — and the possibility that domestic extremists might be radicalized through foreign-linked networks — would motivate the President to push harder for renewal.
Trump began by acknowledging the deeply personal dimension of the question. He described FISA as having been deployed against him illegally during his first campaign by officials he characterized as corrupt, singling out former FBI Director James Comey and his associates. “They signed court orders that were illegal,” Trump said. “Every one of these people should be prosecuted, frankly.” He called Comey “a terrible, sick American” and a “dirty cop.”
Having established that grievance, Trump then pivoted to the affirmative case for renewal based on operational necessity. “Iran is decimated,” he said, “and we got a lot of information by using FISA. It made the job a lot safer and easier.”
He also cited the Venezuela operation as a beneficiary of FISA-enabled intelligence, framing both as evidence that the authority, when used lawfully, delivered results of genuine national security significance….See More
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