Published: 12:24 AM, 13 June 2026
Donald Trump nominates Jay Clayton to top intelligence post
President Donald Trump on Thursday nominated Jay Clayton, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be his next director of national intelligence. "Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. "I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible."
The selection of Clayton - who served as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump's first term - comes amid a firestorm over Trump's earlier decision to make top housing official Bill Pulte the acting national intelligence chief following the planned departure of Tulsi Gabbard, CNN reports.
The elevation of Pulte, who has no demonstrated national security background, prompted pushback from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers and has endangered the renewal of critical government surveillance powers.
Since Pulte's selection, Republican lawmakers had urged Trump to quickly name a more qualified permanent nominee.
But Trump's announcement is unlikely to save the key spy powers authority from its Friday expiration, as Democrats remained largely unmoved following the president's Truth Social post. Pulte, they said, would still need to be replaced as the acting spy chief to earn their votes in support of a FISA extension.
The White House posted the transmission of Clayton's nomination to the Senate a little after 5 p.m. Trump said Thursday that he still plans to install Pulte as the acting director.
"He's only there for a little while, he's running it for a short while," the president told reporters in the Oval Office.
Plus, the House has already left town after failing to pass a short-term extension, all but guaranteeing that the authority for the spy powers program will expire.
"Why did the president wait till after the House went home? Pulte has got to go. Period," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters shortly Trump's announcement on Clayton.
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters: "I don't think the president wants this approved. Why wouldn't he have nominated him yesterday? The House is out of session."
Speaker Mike Johnson has since suggested he won't call the House back to Washington to address the program during next week's prescheduled recess, accusing Democrats of holding it hostage.
