Carl Higbie

From the April 15, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Carl Higbie: Frontline

Research/Study Research/Study

The Trump administration is pushing to renew FISA. Right-wing media figures are split.

Some criticized Trump’s renewal attempt as hypocritical, saying it’s “bullshit” to “pretend that we still need this tool,” while others said the surveillance law is vital “at a time when we should be ... concerned about Iranian sleeper cells”

Written by Reed McMaster & Payton Armstrong

Research contributions from Jack Winstanley

Published

Right-wing media figures are largely divided over President Donald Trump's push to renew the controversial Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows for warrantless surveillance of electronic communications of foreign nationals located outside the United States.

Right-wing podcasters and figures on Newsmax have advocated against renewing Section 702, with some suggesting his support for renewing it now is hypocritical given Trump’s past rants against FISA and others arguing that Trump wants to “spy on Americans.” Meanwhile, some personalities on Fox News came out in support of the FISA renewal, arguing that it's an important national security tool that could deal with “Iranian sleeper cells.”

Select a Section

  • Trump is pushing to renew controversial FISA Section 702 after years of complaining about the law, prompting concerns from Democrats and Republicans

    • Section 702 of FISA, which allows intelligence agencies to collect electronic communications of foreign nationals located outside the U.S. without a warrant, is up for renewal and Congress is struggling to fully pass a long-term extension in the House. After a split in the House over a long-term extension ahead of the April 20 expiration, Section 702 was renewed through April 30, when another vote for renewal will need to take place. [CBS News, 4/15/26; Axios, 4/17/26]
    • On April 14, Trump posted to Truth Social urging Congress to reauthorize FISA without reforms, saying he is “willing to risk” being surveilled. Trump urged Republicans to renew FISA with no reforms: “I 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 Presidential Campaign in their attempt to RIG the Election in favor of Crooked Hillary Clinton. Their use of this instrument in the 2020 Presidential Election was even worse! … While parts of FISA were illegally and unfortunately used against me in the Democrats’ disgraceful Witch Hunt and Attack in the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA Hoax, and perhaps would be used against me in the future, I am willing to risk that as a Citizen in order to do what is right for our Country.” [The Associated Press, 4/15/26; Truth Social, 4/14/26]
    • For years, Trump and his right-wing media allies railed against FISA and claimed it had been used to target him and other Republicans. In his first term, Trump claimed FISA had been used “to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others.” But as Politico noted, Trump’s claims “undercut the administration’s own talking points on legislation to extend” Section 702 in 2018. [Politico, 1/11/18; Mother Jones, 7/23/19; Media Matters, 7/23/19, 2/5/25, 11/22/19; Fox News, Hannity, 12/9/19, 2/5/18]
    • Section 702 has long been controversial for its use to collect communications from American citizens who are in contact with foreign nationals without a warrant. As NPR reported, “a number of lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, are concerned that FISA 702 allows for the federal government to spy on the communications of American citizens without a warrant, violating their constitutional right to privacy. … Privacy advocates say that, as written, the FISA statute allows the government to spy on the communications of Americans and others in the U.S. without the permission of a court, in contravention of the privacy guarantees in the Fourth Amendment.” [NPR, 4/14/26]

  • Right-wing media opponents of renewing Section 702 have accused Trump and other Republicans of hypocrisy for supporting FISA

    • On Infowars, podcaster and ex-FBI agent Kyle Seraphin suggested Trump has been hypocritical for supporting FISA renewal, saying “Literally, the guy who got to experience FISA being used against his own campaign. And now he’s like, oh, FISA is totally good.” After claiming he's been spied on, Seraphin said, “Think about the fact that we have a Congress right now that wants to push a clean FISA renewal and Donald Trump is behind it. Literally, the guy who got to experience FISA being used against his own campaign. And now he’s like, oh, FISA is totally good. If people want to know how far we've gone and how far away we've gone from the mark, they can just look at the fact that our Congress went from saying we shouldn't be spied on … by the way, let’s give these same clowns that we haven’t done any reform on, let’s give them the exact same power that they want.” [Infowars, The Alex Jones Show, 4/14/26; MS NOW, 12/15/25]
    • On Newsmax, former Trump attorney Christina Bobb declared: Any Republican who extends FISA should be primaried or “just flat-out vote Democrat.” Bobb stated, “I was floored as well. FISA comes up for renewal every two years and every two years conservatives are saying kill it, kill it, kill it. In April of 2024, exactly two years ago today, President Trump put out on Truth Social, kill FISA. He explained that FISA is bad. MAGA was like kill FISA. And then the first chance he gets in office, he's trying to renew it. So no, this is bad. I think any Republican that tries to renew this needs to either be primaried or just flat-out vote Democrat. This is anti-American.” [Newsmax, Carl Higbie: Frontline, 4/15/26]
    • Podcast host Robert Barnes criticized Republicans for trying “to sneak a FISA law through as the president betrays another campaign promise.” Barnes criticized Trump: “Now he's for sacrificing all of our security, all of our liberty in the name of security, including his own, including ours, to pass a complete open FISA law that would allow them to spy on us without any warrant at all.” Co-host David Freiheit said, “It was quite clearly a campaign issue that the FISA is a law that only works properly when it's abused, period. Trump comes out and then says, We want a clean, FISA extension. … And I say, well, now isn't it convenient that we're at war? So now we need to justify having this FISA 702 clean extension so we can spy on foreigners in foreign lands, knowing how it's been abused against Trump and his administration itself. I couldn't understand it for the life of me.” [Rumble, Viva and Barnes, 4/19/26; YouTube, accessed 4/28/26]
    • Infowars host Breanna Morello called it “absolutely ridiculous” to entertain a clean FISA renewal, claiming that “FISA was used against President Donald Trump. They used it against his campaign.” She said, “As many of you guys know, I don't support the renewal of FISA. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that we're even entertaining the idea. Remember, again, FISA was used against President Donald Trump. They used it against his campaign. I mean, the whole Russian collusion hoax was cooked up, stirred up because of FISA. So one would think, right, let's just do background before we play this clip. One would think that the president wouldn't want a clean renewal of FISA because you're a victim of the federal government overreaching.” [Infowars, American Journal, 3/19/26]
    • Far-right streamer Stew Peters attacked Trump for “using fake 20-year-old propaganda claims” about “sleeper cells” and said “whenever Trump claims to be the victim of something, he'll eventually just flip it around and weaponize it against those who come to his aid.” Peters said, “Now using this war with Iran, using fake 20-year-old propaganda claims that sleeper cells full of radicalized Iranians or other Muslims have set up shop all over the United States and are preparing to unleash another 9/11 or maybe even another Holocaust, the Trump administration and the wider Republican infrastructure in D.C. have decided to pursue an extension of FISA. You know, the warrantless surveillance program that Trump campaigned on ending because he claimed to be a victim of it, the victim of it. But of course, just like any other Jew, whenever Trump claims to be the victim of something, he'll eventually just flip it around and weaponize it against those who come to his aid, like the American people.” [Rumble, The Stew Peters Show, 4/18/26; Media Matters, 3/13/23]

  • Right-wing media figures against FISA renewal have claimed it could be used “to spy on Americans,” saying it’s “bullshit” to “pretend that we still need this tool”

    • Podcaster Tucker Carlson said that Trump “wants the Congress to allow the U.S. government to spy on Americans.” Carlson claimed that “the president himself was a victim of the misuse of these laws in his first term” when “they were used against him in what became a kind of bureaucratic attempted coup against him that we call Russiagate.” He added, “All of a sudden, the president is advocating for this new law, he wants the Congress to allow the U.S. government to spy on Americans.” [YouTube, The Tucker Carlson Show, 4/15/26]
    • Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn said renewing FISA “is a referendum on whether Congress will continue to authorize a surveillance system that has been turned against the very citizens it was meant to protect.” He added, “What Congress is voting on today is not national security. It is institutional self-preservation. Accountability is being resisted because it imposes limits. Transparency is being resisted because it reveals misuse.” [Telegram, 4/15/26]
    • Podcaster Megyn Kelly suggested FISA would be used on American citizens and not suspected foreign terrorists, saying it’s “bullshit” to “pretend that we still need this tool.” She added: “This is something that we on the right cheered post-9/11. … We accepted that post-9/11 because we were scared shitless. … So we sacrificed a lot of our core beliefs back then, but it's been 25 years since 9/11 and to pretend that we still need this tool for the terrorists, alright, like what? To prevent that from happening? Is bullshit. That’s for us and there should be objections by the American public.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 4/22/26]
    • Newsmax host Carl Higbie said he was “shocked” to hear Trump was pushing for FISA renewal and said he was not “willing to risk the giving up of my rights.” Higbie complained that “Democrats spent years weaponizing FISA courts” but “now, with the program about to expire, Trump’s summoning the GOP holdouts to the White House.” He then read Trump’s Truth Social post that said he is “willing to risk the giving up of my rights and privileges as a citizen for our great military and country,” declaring, “Respectfully, Mr. President, I am not.” [Newsmax, Carl Higbie This Week, 4/15/26]
    • Interviewing Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) in March, Higbie called for Congress to “trash the FISA.” Boebert replied that “without warrants for American citizens, I will also be a ‘no’ on FISA.” [Newsmax, Carl Higbie: Frontline, 3/24/26]

  • Some right-wing media figures have expressed support for FISA renewal “to keep the American people safe,” citing potential threats from “Iranian sleeper cells”

    • On Fox, former acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf advocated for renewing FISA. He added: “Some national security issues and the ability of those capabilities is really important to keep the American people safe, so I'm hopeful they will [renew FISA].” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 4/16/26]
    • Fox News contributor Hugh Hewitt stated, “We have thousands of malicious, malevolent actors in the United States who are not American citizens. We have to keep track of them.” He added, “You lose one of them, you lose lots of American lives.” [Fox News, Special Report, 4/14/26; Fox News, accessed 4/27/26]
    • Fox anchor Dana Perino argued FISA should be renewed now, “at a time when we should be and are concerned about Iranian sleeper cells in the United States.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 4/16/26]