Trump Uses Decades-Old Law to Collect Flock Data Nationwide

Thanks to a 1980s anti–drug trafficking program, cities across the U.S. are being forced to turn over their license plate reader data to the Trump administration.

404 Media reports that the federal government is using the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program to collect data from Flock, Axon, and other cameras used by local police, so that it can be used for a national surveillance program. The plan is to centralize the data on the government’s servers and make it available to other law enforcement agencies. Data collected by HIDTA can also be shared with the National License Plate Reader Program run by the Drug Enforcement Agency.

The program allows the federal government to get around local and state restrictions against Flock and similar license plate reader companies without oversight. 404 Media learned about the plans through public records and court documents.

The HIDTA program is part of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, which was just recognized by the Trump administration for “managing an automated license plate reader platform that brings together all levels of law enforcement.”

In many states, local police departments can’t even set up license plate cameras without agreeing to send their data to the federal government, 404 Media reports. In Georgia, for example, cities have to sign a memorandum of understanding promising to send their data to the HIDTA program.

Flock cameras are experiencing a backlash from the American public over their warrant-free surveillance and collection of data. They’ve been abused by local police to spy on people unrelated to law enforcement investigations, and have inspired protests at municipal meetings. And they collect far more than license plates: One hacked camera revealed the camera catalogs people, bicycles, small details such as bumper stickers, and, in one case, an American flag patch on a motorcyclist’s bag.

This latest news shows that the Trump administration could be doing anything it wants with the vast amount of data that these cameras collect, skirting the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. A centralized database such as the HIDTA could be misused by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI, or any number of unscrupulous Trump administration officials.

Another Republican senator is begging the Trump administration to reduce its immigration raids.

West Virginia Senator and Trump loyalist Jim Justice—mostly known for parading his massive bulldog around Capitol Hill—drew a line in the sand in a Tuesday interview with Politico. Notably, Justice is not running for reelection and does not currently have to win voters over to his side.

“Before you know it, you get people that get carried away in their job and whatever it may be, and all of a sudden, then you’re dragging people away that have lived on your street corner for 15 years, and I don’t know that we need to be doing that stuff,” he said.

“To get better, the first thing you got to do is admit you’re doing something wrong.… And in this situation, with all that’s going on and all the stuff, we probably got to step back from it and say, ‘Maybe we’re doing something wrong here or there,’ and then adjust to that.”

“This is a stunning shift from Senator Jim Justice,” former Obama and Biden immigration policy adviser Andrea R. Flores wrote on X. “The alternative to ICE sweeps is legalization. People who have lived in your neighborhood for 15 years won’t have a path to legal status until both parties come together to create one.”

Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall (who is up for reelection) also made headlines for a similar rebuke of the Trump administration just last week.

“When ICE operates in Kansas, it needs to coordinate with our local law enforcement. Our sheriffs and police know these communities better than anyone, and working together keeps officers and residents safe,” Marshall wrote on X after a spike of ICE activity in multiple Kansas towns. “I’m closely following what’s happening in SW Kansas and have been in direct contact with Secretary Mullin and local law enforcement as ICE executes warrants in order to keep Kansans safe.” Marshall is up for reelection this November.

ICE conducted a massive immigration raid in West Virginia earlier this year named “Operation Country Roads.” They arrested and detained more than 600 people in two weeks, the vast majority of whom were eventually revealed to have no criminal record—a far cry from the dangerous people ICE constantly claims to be prioritizing.

The Trump administration has resorted to trying to bribe Americans to let data centers into their communities.

“The people are going to benefit directly, whether its teachers that get paid a bonus, whether its people that live in the community get paid a dividend, you could call it a dividend because a dividend sounds right,” Trump said Tuesday evening. “They are going to greatly benefit by what’s happened.”

“And by the way, I’m very good at real estate,” Trump added. “Some of those data centers are absolutely beautiful.”

The president then blamed the hardware sites’ bad reputation on Democrats, suggesting that there was no sensible or justifiable reason that the public could be opposed to their creation.

Trump did not elaborate on how he would ensure that Americans received their share of data center profits, or how much that sum could be.

Data center development is necessary for building out artificial intelligence. Yet despite collectively pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into the critical infrastructure, the tech industry has done a remarkably bad job at marketing its product to American communities contemplating their futures alongside them.

Unaware of any benefits, the public has instead become highly attuned to the inordinate resource drain the centers create: A medium-sized facility can use 110 million gallons of water per year for cooling its hardware—the same amount needed to support a 1,000-household community, according to a 2025 analysis by the nonprofit Environmental and Energy Study Institute.

Meanwhile, Trump has a lot to politically—and personally—gain from championing AI. Days into his second term, the president unveiled a $500 billion public-private venture to support AI development. The project was dubbed Stargate and backed by OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX.

The president’s 2026 financial disclosures also reveal that he’s invested a sizable sum in tech companies pursuing AI projects, spending millions of dollars on stock purchases for Oracle, Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta, Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet.

But Trump’s opinion on the matter is seriously at odds with that of the American public. Recent polling indicates that the vast majority of Americans, including Republicans, have no interest in permitting the tech industry to build AI facilities in their backyards. An August survey published by Heatmap revealed that 75 percent of the public opposes data center development in their communities.

The growing divide between the president’s sentiments and the reality lived by the American public should serve as a reminder that Trump—who is worth an estimated $6.5 billion and owns hundreds of business entities and properties around the world—has almost nothing in common with the rest of the country. Trump will never be hard pressed to find drinking water like the residents of Flint, Michigan; apparently doesn’t have to buy (or even pronounce) America’s increasingly expensive “groceries”; and will never experience the crushing toll of the housing crisis (a “big yawn,” he said in June, while profiting off it) or needing to split the cost at the gas pump between credit cards.

Last month, Trump even went so far as to claim that anyone who opposes data center development is “backwards and poor,” a sobering reminder that Trump simply does not understand or care about the interests of the average American.

The public has some questions about President Donald Trump’s stance.

Our most macho-presenting president since perhaps Lyndon B. Johnson was seen standing in an awkward, knock-kneed fashion in a video clip from his “Super Intelligence” tech executive press conference on Tuesday.

The president’s head, neck, and upper body face one way, while his torso, knees, and feet seem to all face in completely different directions. His rotund abdomen appears to protrude forward, and he moves as if it is physically painful for him to turn his waist and hips when addressing the reporters surrounding him.

The clip was posted by White House communications adviser Margo Martin.

“Lmao bro wtf is this stance,” the large Wu Tang is for the Children account posted on X.

“HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SOMEONE STAND LIKE THIS BEFORE,” another large liberal account inquired. “I’d seriously love to hear from some medical expert. Is this a sign that he has hurt his leg or is it somehow a sign of cognitive decline.”

“The only person I’ve ever seen stand like this was a child who shit their pants,” said another account.

Perfect posture has zero correlation with being an effective and productive politician; Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one of the most effective presidents ever, was paralyzed from the waist down for the entirety of his four terms. But for a president as dedicated to projecting strength and power as Trump is, this is a bad look—especially as chatter about his physical and cognitive decline grows louder every time he falls asleep on camera or walks gingerly.

President Trump’s plan to make his triumphal arch a military center with snipers, drones, and ammunition is news to the people in charge of building it.

The Washington Post reports that officials with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the National Park Service are unaware of Trump’s military plans for the arch at Memorial Circle in Washington, D.C., near Arlington National Cemetery. They said Tuesday that they will proceed with the existing designs, have not heard from the Department of Defense, and plan to have the landmark open to tourists.

Trump said in a September 20 Truth Social post that the arch would be a “top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch” that would “house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers, on both the roof and plaza areas, and additionally have and hold large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage.”

That appears to be a contrived reason to get legal approval for the arch, which Trump wants to begin construction on in November. If Trump pushes the military plans, “a new or supplemental review would be required,” the executive director of the D.C. Preservation League, Rebecca Miller, wrote in a letter to the administration.

“Putting a drone launching site directly in the landing path for DCA is a stupid, dangerous, and unworkable idea,” Democratic Representative Don Beyer of Virginia said last week. “Trump clearly expects to lose a lawsuit and therefore wants to set up a pretext to argue that the arch is tied to national security. Which is obviously idiotic.”