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.

President Donald Trump insists that he is extremely popular, but a highly-respected pollster warned on CNN Wednesday that the Republican leader is putting his party at risk of losing control of the Senate.

“It's like a nightmare for the Republicans,” said CNN analyst Harry Enten. “The Democrats just keep gaining and gaining when it comes to the Senate odds. And you can see it really well in the Kalshi prediction market. Just take a look at the chance that Democrats win control. At the beginning of the year, it was only about a 1-in-3 shot. But now look at this — Democrats haven't just gained on Republicans, they actually have the majority chance at 54 percent. That's fairly close to a toss-up. But the bottom line is this: we all thought the House was going to go to the Democrats, but the Senate as well?”

Later, citing an update by Cook Political Report, Enten said Dems “shifted four key races closer to Democrats. What are we talking about? Georgia going from a toss-up to lean Democratic. How about North Carolina? That would be a Democratic pickup — from toss-up to lean Democratic. How about Ohio, a state that Donald Trump won by double digits — from lean GOP to toss-up, with the likely Democratic nominee being Sherrod Brown, the former senator. And then Nebraska. Nebraska hasn't elected a Democratic senator since 2006, but it went from solid Republican to likely Republican.”

Enten concluded that “Democrats are gaining in many different seats across the political map, putting new states into play.”

This is not the first time that the nonpartisan pollster has had ominous news for Republicans. Earlier this month, Enten pointed out that Trump’s numbers of gas prices and inflation were a “disaster.”

"This is no April Fool's joke … All these numbers are a disaster for President Trump,” said Enten, comparing Trump’s marks to those of a president who sank his political fortunes and those of his party nearly half a century ago with gas prices and inflation.

"… Jimmy Carter, whose presidency, just like Joe Biden's, was absolutely wrecked by inflation, was at 66 percent about at this point in his presidency back in 1978, Donald Trump, even worse than they are," Enten argued.

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President Donald Trump insists that he is as popular as ever, but a right-wing radio commentator declared that Republicans are in danger of losing key midterm election races.

“One wonders how many warning signs Republicans need to see that they have a problem in Georgia — and nationally,” Erick Erickson wrote for the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Wednesday. “But on April 7, they got another one.”

Erickson referred to the recent House race for Georgia’s 14th congressional district, in which former Floyd County District Attorney Clay Fuller won by 12 points in a district that Trump won in 2024 by 37 points. The pattern, he said, has been reflected elsewhere throughout both Georgia and America. While it is reasonable to place part of the blame on local factors, Erickson laid a great deal of it at the feet of his own party’s president.

“He keeps giving his supporters reasons for exasperation,” Erickson wrote. “In just the last week he dropped an F-bomb on Easter while praising Allah, declared the destruction of an entire civilization was coming, attacked the Pope, then pushed out a picture of himself as Jesus healing the sick that he later deleted and said he thought was him as a doctor.”

He added, “Numerous Trump supporters want the president to delete his social media accounts and are frustrated by the president’s lack of discipline. That will play into a general election with motivated Democrats and unenthusiastic Republicans.” Indeed, the only real advantage for the Republicans is that Democrats seem to have a problem attracting quality candidates.

Erickson complained that “Republicans have been making some excuses” with Fuller’s race, arguing that “his runoff election happened during spring break for parts of the district.”

“But that does not excuse the anemic early vote totals,” Erickson warned. “… The problem for Republicans is that the turnout pattern is playing out nationally. The GOP lost a solid Texas legislative seat outside Fort Worth a few months ago. That district saw a 17-point swing toward the Democrats. The pattern has held up from Florida to New York. Historically, this pattern is a harbinger of doom for the party that holds the White House.”

“Perhaps the best thing the GOP in Georgia has going for it right now is the Democratic Party,” Erickson opined. “The Democrats are hungry for a win but lack a real bench. Likewise, as the GOP has drifted into an exurban and rural party, the Democrats have consolidated — even in Georgia, as an urban progressive party less aligned with the state as a whole. That will not last, however. Democrats will get hungry enough for a win that they will shed ideological alignments that put them out of step with voters.”

He concluded, “The once mighty Republican monopoly in Georgia, like all monopolies, will turn sclerotic if it does not come up with fresh ideas to motive its voters.”