President Donald Trump implored GOP lawmakers on Tuesday to “UNIFY” in support of an 18-month extension of a particular spying power that, while ostensibly limited to foreigners, has already been weaponized against American citizens — including Trump.

The warrantless surveillance authority of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was both used to spy on Trump’s 2016 campaign and exploited in recent years by the FBI hundreds of thousands of times to spy on U.S. citizens. However, Trump has now determined that it is presently “right for our Country” and needed by the military.

Background

Section 702 is a provision of FISA enacted by Congress in 2008 that enables the state to spy on foreign nationals located outside the U.S. with the compelled aid of electronic communication service providers. The surveillance is authorized programmatically such that the government doesn’t have to bother seeking a court-authorized warrant for every person it targets.

‘Do what is right for our Country.’

Although individuals targeted under 702 are supposed to be foreign nationals believed to be outside the U.S., the FBI has acknowledged that “such targets may send an email or have a phone call with a U.S. person,” resulting in the warrantless surveillance of American citizens.

Numerous Republicans, including Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Mike Lee (Utah), were especially critical of Section 702 after the FBI admitted there had been 278,000 “unintentional” backdoor search queries of the 702 database for the private communications of Americans between 2020 and 2021 alone.

Jan. 6 protesters, donors to a congressional campaign, and BLM protesters were among the American citizens subjected to the warrantless searches.

New circumstances

Trump, who advocated in 2024 for killing FISA, said on Tuesday that he was working with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other Republicans to “get a clean extension of FISA 702 through the House of Representatives this week.”

RELATED: ‘Clear abuse’: Appellate court thwarts Judge Boasberg’s plan to investigate top Trump officials

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The president noted that he “was a victim of the worst and most illegal abuse of FISA in our Nation’s History, by Radical Left Lunatics, who lied to the FISA Court to spy on my 2016 President Campaign in their attempt to RIG the Election in favor of Crooked Hillary Clinton. Their use of this instrument in the 2020 President was even worse!”

“When the Dirty Cop, James Comey, the failed Head of the FBI, went after me, he was using FISA Title I, the Domestic Collection, not FISA 702, the Foreign Collection, which needs to be extended to,” continued Trump.

The Obama FBI utilized FISA Title I authority to target the 2016 Trump campaign during the bureau’s Crossfire Hurricane frame-up.

The FBI submitted multiple applications to authorize FISA surveillance of Carter Page, a U.S. citizen then serving as an adviser to Trump. The applications that were approved were loaded with “17 significant inaccuracies and omissions,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General.

Trump acknowledged that FISA authority has been used against him in the past and may be weaponized against him in the future but stressed that he is “willing to risk that as a Citizen in order to do what is right for our Country.”

According to the president, the military “desperately needs FISA 702, and it is one of the reasons we have had such tremendous SUCCESS on the battlefield, both in Venezuela and Iran.”

“The fact is, whether you like FISA or not, it is extremely important to our Military,” continued Trump. “I have spoken to many Generals about this, and they consider it VITAL.”

Trump’s Tuesday message greatly resembles a Truth Social message he shared last month, in which he also said that he wanted “the Critical and Common Sense Reforms that were made in the last Reauthorization of FISA” to “remain intact to protect the American People from abuses.”

The House Rules Committee advanced a clean extension of the surveillance powers on Tuesday, setting the stage for a floor vote on extending Section 702 ahead of the April 20 deadline, reported The Hill.

While some Republican critics of Section 702 have reversed their stances like the president in light of the reforms added to the provision, it remains unclear if Johnson presently has the votes to see it pass. Politico reported that several GOP lawmakers are planning to vote “no.”

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​702, Crossfire hurricane, Fbi, Fisa, Foreign intelligence surveillance act, House rules committee, President donald trump, Section 702, Us department of justice, House speaker mike johnson, Surveillance, Warrantless, Spyying, Domestic spying, Domestic surveillance, Politics 

Last Sunday, President Trump posted an AI-generated meme of himself dressed in white and red robes, his hand appearing to hold a glowing orb, while healing a sick person in a hospital bed. Many interpreted the image as Trump depicting himself as Jesus and were deeply offended by what they perceived as religious blasphemy. Others defended the post as an innocent joke.

But Glenn Beck says all of these reactions are missing the bigger issue.

Citing a Washington post article that framed the meme as the cause of rare, strong backlash and blasphemy accusations from Trump’s evangelical and Catholic supporters, Glenn begins by calling out the outlet for politically capitalizing on a tasteless joke in order to rile up and divide Trump’s supporters.

“It’s not like Jesus is Muhammad. You can do whatever you want to Jesus in this country and nobody cares, it seems,” he says. “Since when did the Washington Post care about something that could be looked upon as blasphemy for Christians?”

“They only care because it’s political,” he argues.

Glenn explains that social media has become a powerful tool that enemies — domestic and foreign — use to push propaganda, stir up dissent, and manufacture outrage.

Research has just shown that foreign powers are doing this in America right now.

Glenn cites recent data showing that “60% of the most viral posts on X about Iran in the first weeks of the fighting came from accounts based outside of the US. Foreign accounts generated 155 million views compared to 93 million from real American viewers.”

“That’s not organic outrage, okay? That’s Iran. That’s Russia. That’s China flooding the zone with deepfakes, doctored images of sunken ships, scripted narratives designed to make us fight one another,” he argues.

These foreign powers “don’t care if you love Trump or hate Trump,” Glenn continues.

“They just need everybody at each other’s throats.”

The biggest issue with Trump’s Jesus meme, says Glenn, isn’t what it might or might not have conveyed; the biggest issue is that it served as fuel for the social media outrage machine that keeps us fighting one another, which is exactly what our enemies want.

“[Social media] is a .50-caliber machine gun aimed at your head and this civilization every single day. It’s a nuclear weapon,” he warns.

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Aigenerated meme, Blaze media, Blazetv, China, Divide trumps supporters, Foreign powers, Iran, Manufacture outrage, Political capitalizing, President trump, Propaganda, Religious blasphemy, Russia, Social media, The glenn beck program, Trump, Trump jesus meme, Trump jesus post, Viral posts, Washington post 

A tough pressure campaign from high-profile Democrats has failed to persuade other members of their party in Maryland, where a new congressional map is now off the table.

Democrats enjoy a super-majority in both the Maryland House of Delegates and the Senate, and Democrat Wes Moore has been governor since 2023. Nevertheless, a redistricting proposal that would have threatened the lone Republican congressional seat died in the Maryland Senate when the legislative session ended Monday night.

‘At some point, I am going to have to have a conversation with him if he continues to stand in the way of an up or down vote.’

The Maryland House passed the map overwhelmingly in early February, 99-37.

Gov. Moore pressed hard to pass the map through the state Senate and onto his desk as a way to combat Republican redistricting efforts in Texas and North Carolina, spearheaded by President Donald Trump.

“I think Donald Trump is actively trying to manipulate and change the rules around the November election and beyond because he knows he cannot win on his policies,” Moore told the AP.

Moore also told Rev. Al Sharpton last week: “If the rest of the country is going to have this conversation about mid-decade redistricting, then so should Maryland, and so should every other state. Because until it is done nationally, we have to make sure that this election is not stolen right before our face so this pain is made permanent.”

RELATED: Hakeem Jeffries pressures Maryland Democrat over one Republican-held congressional seat

– YouTube

Even U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) promised to pressure Democratic Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson to bring the map up for a vote.

“All we are asking Senate President Ferguson to do is allow democracy to prevail. What that means is an up or down vote,” Jeffries said in February. “At some point, I am going to have to have a conversation with him if he continues to stand in the way of an up or down vote. But, hopefully, over the next few days, he will change his mind.”

But Ferguson did not change his mind.

Ferguson has consistently resisted efforts to vote on the map, claiming that passing a new map could jeopardize the current map by prompting judicial review.

“Any redrawing of the current map could reopen the ability for someone to challenge the current map and give the court the opportunity to strike it down, or even worse, redraw the map itself,” Ferguson wrote in a letter back in October.

“That means that Maryland’s potential gain of one seat is immediately eliminated, and, in fact, worsens the national outlook.”

A judge already tossed a Maryland congressional map that passed in 2021, calling it “a product of extreme partisan gerrymandering.” The current map was passed in 2022.

Jeffries’ office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg was handed a major defeat on Tuesday amid his ongoing jihad against the Trump administration.

Early last year, the Obama appointee ordered a pause to the Trump administration’s planned deportations of Tren de Aragua terrorists under the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg was not, however, sufficiently quick on the draw.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed that two planes loaded with alleged gangsters were already airborne, one headed to El Salvador and the other to Honduras.

‘These proceedings are a clear abuse.’

Boasberg, who previously helped the Biden FBI spy on Republican lawmakers’ phone records and released a woman accused of repeatedly threatening President Donald Trump’s life, lashed out in response.

Days after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out his temporary restraining order blocking the administration from using the AEA to deport Tren de Aragua gangsters, Boasberg stated in a court motion a year ago that the federal government had demonstrated “a willful disregard” for his ruling, prompting him “to conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt.”

RELATED: Liberals increase their stranglehold over Wisconsin Supreme Court — which now has ties to Planned Parenthood

John Moore/Getty Images

Boasberg attempted to pursue criminal proceedings against top administration officials, but the Justice Department intervened, asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to ground the activist judge’s “endless fishing expedition.”

In its petition to the appellate court, the DOJ accused the district court of plunging forward “in a doubly unconstitutional manner: by conducting its own criminal investigation (contra the separation of powers) and doing so in a way that appears designed to punish Defendants for their successful mandamus petition (contra the Due Process Clause).”

The DOJ argued further that Boasberg’s order was “also incoherent on its own terms,” noting “there was no willful violation as a matter of law because the TRO did not clearly forbid the conduct at issue.”

On Monday, a three-judge panel on the appellate court, comprising two Trump appointees and an Obama appointee, crushed Boasberg’s dreams of raking Trump officials over the coals in criminal contempt proceedings in a 2-1 decision.

“The district court proposes to probe high-level Executive Branch deliberations about matters of national security and diplomacy,” Judge Neomi Rao noted in the opinion for the court. “These proceedings are a clear abuse of discretion, as the district court’s order said nothing about transferring custody of the plaintiffs and therefore lacks the clarity to support criminal contempt based on the transfer of custody.”

Rao said that Boasberg repeatedly “moved the goalposts”; suffered from an incredible lack of clarity, at least in his construction of his restraining order; “assumed an improper jurisdiction antagonistic to the Executive Branch”; and had pursued an “intrusive” and “improper” investigation that would inevitably terminate in a “legal dead end.”

Boasberg did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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More than 100 police officers responded to a panic alarm allegedly activated by a teacher at about 8:45 a.m. on Thursday at Splendora High School.

The school was already on lockdown when officers arrived, and school officials later sent out a notice to parents that police were investigating a “physical altercation” between a student and a staff member.

‘If it’s going to be a hoax, if you’re going to call in a hoax, we will hold you responsible for it.’

The altercation involved a student and 53-year-old teacher Nicole Truelove, who had been allegedly stabbed with a razor blade.

Students described a panicked and chaotic response to the lockdown as teachers pulled students into their rooms.

After an investigation, police determined that the teacher had stabbed herself and blamed the student.

“During the investigation, it was determined that there was no assault on a teacher that was committed by a student. The injuries sustained to the teacher were self-inflicted,” said Rick Bass, the assistant chief of operations for the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.

“Evidence supports that this was a hoax,” he added.

Truelove was charged with making a false report and tampering with evidence.

Bass went on to defend the large police response as appropriate for the panic alarm.

“This is what’s supposed to happen when we have threats on school campuses,” he added. “And that’s what you see here today. That’s why you see such a large law enforcement community here. We take it very seriously. And if it’s going to be a hoax, if you’re going to call in a hoax, we will hold you responsible for it.”

Superintendent Dr. Dustin Bromley also released a statement about the incident.

“While this is a very unfortunate incident, the safety and security measures that we have implemented worked flawlessly,” he said.

RELATED: Alabama woman arrested for kidnapping hoax claiming child on side of highway was used as ‘bait’

“We understand that situations like this can be concerning, and we truly appreciate the patience and cooperation of our students, our staff, and of course, our parents and families while our emergency protocols were followed,” Bromley added. “The safety of our students and staff remains at the top of our priority.”

KHOU-TV has since discovered that Truelove sued another school district after alleging that an inmate sexually assaulted her. That lawsuit was settled, and the inmate later filed a lawsuit accusing her of false accusations. He then withdrew that lawsuit.

Truelove had only worked with the Splendora district for one year before the incident.

Splendora is a small Texas town of about 2,000 residents located 37 miles northeast of Houston.

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As the United States Navy moves to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, the world is watching for a show of force. What they will find instead is a fleet hollowed out by a decade of social engineering and administrative sclerosis.

You cannot project American sovereignty abroad with a military that is busy managing its own decline at home. More importantly, this naval escalation risks suffocating the most promising diplomatic opening in decades.

The permanent class of experts would rather risk a catastrophic naval engagement than concede that a regional partner can resolve a crisis.

The current standoff in the Middle East has reached a critical juncture. The Pentagon has confirmed the commencement of a formal naval blockade of Iranian ports. This decision follows a dramatic surge in global oil prices, which have now breached the $104-per-barrel mark.

The current situation in the Strait of Hormuz is a diagnostic test of a failing American foreign policy establishment that seems intent on sabotaging the mediation efforts currently led by Pakistan.

For the past week, Islamabad has served as the epicenter of a historic diplomatic effort. These talks represented the first direct, high-level engagement between Washington and Tehran in nearly 50 years. By facilitating marathon negotiations between American officials and Iranian representatives, Pakistan demonstrated that regional stability is best managed by regional actors.

This diplomatic track offered an off-ramp from a conflict that would likely bankrupt the global economy and further overextend American resources. Even as peace efforts continue, however, the American deep state has pivoted back to a posture of maritime confrontation.

The defense establishment has become a microcosm of the broader bureaucracy plaguing the American government. Procurement cycles for new vessels span decades, and the internal culture has shifted toward ideological compliance rather than mission readiness. Put simply: Institutional rot has degraded the military’s ability to do its job.

Reports indicate that the availability of operational carrier strike groups is significantly lower than projected. Attempting to enforce a blockade with a hollowed-out fleet is a dangerous venture and could undermine the leverage the American delegation sought to build in Islamabad.

From a regional perspective, the sudden shift toward a blockade looks less like a strategic necessity and more like an attempt by the Washington bureaucracy to reclaim control of the narrative.

Critics of the modern bureaucracy have long argued that a nation cannot remain a great power if its governing structures are no longer accountable to the reality of the world. By ignoring the diplomatic progress in Pakistan in favor of a naval show, the administrative state is prioritizing its own relevance over a sustainable peace.

RELATED: The Trump-Vance dynamic is the key to solving the Iran problem

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

This bureaucratic reflex reveals a deeper pathology within the American capital. The permanent class of experts would rather risk a catastrophic naval engagement than concede that a regional partner can resolve a crisis. This is the definition of a paper tiger mentality: a desperate projection of power abroad to mask the total lack of accountability and efficiency at home.

The Trump administration has the opportunity to embrace a new model of burden sharing. Real leadership requires the courage to let regional partners take the lead in mediation, rather than allowing the interventionist bureaucracy to launch a new conflict.

Blockading the Strait of Hormuz risks an escalation that the Navy is ill-prepared to handle. Such an escalation would also risk alienating the regional partners who have worked toward peace talks and ceasefire agreements.

The blockade should be viewed as the American administrative state’s refusal to accept a world where it isn’t the sole arbiter of every crisis.

The path forward is clear. American leaders must recognize that the greatest threats to Washington are not just the regimes in Tehran or Beijing, but the internal decay of American institutions.

To secure peace, the United States must support the diplomatic process rather than drowning it in the Persian Gulf.

​United states navy, Strait of hormuz, Blockade, Trump administration, Peace talks, Deep state, Administrative state, Diplomacy, Opinion & analysis