Former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has made an accusation against President Donald Trump, claiming he is exploiting the WHCD shooting incident to advance a controversial government surveillance program. The statement is a further escalation in the public rift between the president and the one-time ally.
Marjorie Taylor Greene comments on Donald Trump ‘using’ WHCD shooting
Greene made the comments on X on Sunday, hours after a gunman attempted to breach the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton in D.C. The suspect, identified as Cole Thomas Allen, a 31-year-old teacher from Los Angeles, was allegedly targeting Donald Trump and top administration officials, according to a manifesto obtained by the New York Post.
While Trump cited the WHCD shooting to argue for hosting future events in the White House ballroom, Greene focused on a different legislative priority. She accused Trump of using the security scare, alongside his stance on Iran, to pressure Congress into reauthorizing a warrantless surveillance authority.
“The President is using his war on Iran and last night’s WHCD shooting as excuses to give up your rights so that Congress just passes a clean extension of FISA 702,” Greene wrote. She was referring to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which empowers intelligence agencies to intercept the electronic communications of non-U.S. nationals abroad without a warrant.
This legal authority, which gathers data on nearly 350,000 foreign nationals, is set to expire on April 30, and the White House is urging Congress to extend it into at least 2027. Greene did not limit her criticism to the policy itself, framing Donald Trump’s push as a direct assault on constitutional protections.
“It’s ridiculous and absurd that any President who has sworn an oath to uphold the constitution would ever tell Americans to give up your rights so the government has the ability to spy on you, especially a government that has already done it to not only him, but to hundreds of thousands of Americans,” she continued.
Neither Donald Trump nor the White House has yet responded to these accusations.
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu for Mandatory.
