National Security

Matthew Petti | 12.4.2024 10:30 AM

President-elect Donald Trump's first few national security staffing picks were neocon restorations. He filled his administration with figures who wanted a return to the heady old days after 9/11, when every problem in the world had a U.S. military solution. But over the Thanksgiving vacation, Trump choose two new senior officials who might push back on the foreign and domestic war on terror.

Kash Patel, the former prosecutor and Pentagon official whom Trump chose to lead the FBI, wants to roll back a large part of the surveillance state. And Massad Boulos, the father-in-law of Trump's daughter who has been tapped to be senior adviser on Middle Eastern and Arab affairs, signals a willingness to engage in serious negotiations over the region.

As a congressional staffer, Patel had helped write the "Nunes memo," a report by Rep. Devin Nunes (R–Calif.) claiming that the FBI had improperly spied on a Trump campaign staffer during an investigation into Russian influence. Nunes and Patel were particularly focused on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, which provides secret warrants for wiretapping suspected spies.

Although the FISA court was set up in the 1970s to restrain government power, it has become a "kangaroo court with a rubber........

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