CONFUSION: Trump Reverses His Own Administration On FISA Warrants, Then Reverses Himself Again

In President Trump’s latest episode of legislative ignorance, early on Thursday morning he tweeted out that he opposed the renewal of the FISA Act, the law that grants federal law enforcement the ability to obtain wiretap warrants from a so-called FISA court. There are significant limitations on the warrants that may be granted: such wiretaps, most significantly, “may not intentionally target any person known at the time of acquisition to be located in the United States … shall be conducted in a manner consistent with the fourth amendment to the Constitution of the United States.”

The Trump administration supports the reauthorization of the FISA Act. The press secretary’s office released this statement yesterday, opposing weakening Section 702(b):

But Trump was likely watching his favorite morning show, Fox & Friends, this morning. This monologue from Judge Napolitano may have prompted Trump to take up his Twitter.

So Trump tweeted:

Somebody must have told President Trump that his administration supports the reauthorization, so he tweeted this 90 minutes later:

In the end, does any of this matter? Not much — Trump wasn’t going to veto the bill once his administration already approved it. But it does demonstrate that the president isn’t doing himself any favors by sounding off about topics he knows little about, other than the rumors he’s been instrumental in trafficking. And it does give impetus to Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who has threatened to filibuster the bill unless adjustments are made.