One of the Trump administration and the GOP's biggest goals in the last year has been to reauthorize a national spying program due to expire soon, and while a deal to do just that was almost over the finish line, according to Politico, President Donald Trump's latest impulsive decision has sent the deal crashing down in flames.
Significant worries about U.S. citizens getting caught up in surveillance programs designed to track foreign threats had been a major sticking point in the negotiations to "pass a long-term extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act." While a "bipartisan coalition" in Congress had been nearing a deal to pass a three-year extension for the program, Politico reported on Monday that Trump's nomination of Bill Pulte, "a MAGA ally with no national security experience," to serve as acting director of national intelligence had blown up the plan, with Democrats withdrawing their support in protest.
"It’s only the latest in a string of occasions where Trump has acted seemingly on impulse and without consideration for the political fallout and ramifications on Capitol Hill," Politico's report detailed. "That has complicated efforts by Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson’s to enact the president’s agenda with just months to go until the midterms."
It added later: "The newest FISA hiccup comes after GOP leaders saw passage of their immigration enforcement bill delayed, and almost entirely derailed, by Trump’s unrelated demands — first for more money to cover security features surrounding the White House ballroom project, then over the announcement of a $1.8 billion 'Anti-Weaponization Fund' that fueled a wave of Republican furor on Capitol Hill."
“I don’t think he thinks about the impact on us and the timing,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Alaska Republican, told the press this week. “Which is unfortunate because it really has had an impact. Quite honestly, I’m worried about what we’re going to do on FISA.”
Thune, the report noted, has even begun to vent frustrations about Trump's reckless decision-making, a break from his typically "even-keeled" demeanor. While attacking Democrats on Friday for their protest against the deal, he admitted that there "have been timing issues around several things [the administration has] done in the last few weeks."
“Timing is everything. And we’re trying to get some stuff done up here, things that the White House wants done that… get more complicated with the weekly announcements,” Thune said last week.
"You just couldn’t have thrown an uglier wrench into the process," Rep. Jim Himes, a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said about the breakdown. "I’m bleeding Democrats [willing to support the FISA deal], and we didn’t have that many to begin with."
