Whilst many people would see your comments as tinfoil-hattery, the point is an interesting one. There is obviously no proof that the president has been blackmailed by the NSA. However it is not outside the reasons of their capabilities to have targeted and monitored him prior to him becoming president whilst he was unaware of their capabilities.<p>The point, and this is important, is that the NSA not only has the real technical capability to fully monitor any number of up-and-coming senators, but there are no checks and balances in order for us to know that they HAVEN&#x27;T targeted and subsequently blackmailed him.<p>Technology has made it easy to target and monitor anyone that has the possibility of making a noticeable impact on the system. The people that control the system at that point in time, are then able to embrace, extinguish or &quot;redirect&quot; any outside risk to their power base.<p>Total surveillance makes this process simple. Not only can you start to weed out the bad apples, but you can also start to automate the process. Slowly you can train the system to spot the risks. He who controls the surveillance, then controls everyone else.<p>With complete storage archives of all the data, you can also backtrack on flagged entities and see their entire history. Imagine being presented with a blackmail dossier that listed (with photographic &#x2F; video evidence) your youthful escapades during your school and university years. &quot;I did not inhale!&quot;. &quot;Oh yes you did Mr President, and here&#x27;s a HD video of it&quot;.<p>The NSA have taken the worst that the internet had to offer and weaponised it against all citizens - both foreign and domestic.