Trump Delays Clayton DNI Hearing Until McDonald Confirmed as US Attorney

President Donald Trump announced early Wednesday that the Senate Intelligence Committee would not hold a scheduled confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton, his pick to serve as director of national intelligence. The move came hours before the hearing was set to begin and appeared designed to keep Bill Pulte in the acting role while extracting concessions on surveillance policy and election legislation.

Trump posted the decision on Truth Social just before 4 a.m. while attending the G7 summit in France. He said the hearing would remain off until Jamie McDonald is confirmed as the new U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, replacing Clayton in that post. He also tied any renewal of the lapsed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provision known as Section 702 to passage of the Save America Act, a package of voting restrictions that has stalled in the Senate.

The sudden change scrambled plans that Senate Republicans had hoped would produce a swift confirmation for Clayton. Lawmakers had moved quickly on the nomination after Democrats and some Republicans objected to Pulte’s temporary appointment. Pulte, who chairs the Federal Housing Finance Agency, lacks national security or intelligence experience, prompting criticism that he is ill-suited to oversee the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies.

Trump framed the delay as necessary to prevent Democrats from reneging on an earlier understanding. He accused Senate Republicans of moving too fast on Clayton and thereby removing leverage over Democrats on FISA reauthorization. In his post he referred to Democrats as “Dumocrats” and claimed they had broken a deal by indicating they would now oppose the surveillance authority.

Section 702 allows U.S. agencies to collect communications of foreign targets located outside the United States without individual warrants. The authority expired last week, and its renewal has become entangled with the DNI vacancy. Democrats had signaled they would support reauthorization only after Pulte was removed from consideration for the permanent post. Trump’s latest statement leaves Pulte in place for the foreseeable future and further clouds prospects for quick action on the surveillance measure.

Clayton, currently serving as U.S. attorney in Manhattan, was viewed by many Republicans as a relatively uncontroversial choice with prior government experience from his time as Securities and Exchange Commission chairman. His nomination had been expected to receive bipartisan support once Pulte stepped aside. The abrupt postponement now raises questions about whether Clayton’s confirmation can be completed before Pulte’s acting authority solidifies.

The White House has not clarified how the Senate Intelligence Committee intends to proceed with the 2 p.m. hearing that had been on the schedule. Committee members received no formal notice from leadership before Trump’s public announcement. Several Republicans had privately expressed frustration that the president’s intervention undermined efforts to restore stability at the top of the intelligence community following the recent resignation of Tulsi Gabbard.

By conditioning FISA renewal on an unrelated voting bill, Trump has expanded the set of issues now linked to the surveillance debate. The Save America Act includes provisions that would impose new identification requirements and restrict mail-in voting, measures Democrats have uniformly opposed. Linking the two matters risks further delaying any agreement on intelligence authorities that senior national security officials have described as critical for ongoing collection programs.

It remains unclear whether Senate Republicans will attempt to revive the Clayton hearing without White House support or whether they will seek alternative ways to limit Pulte’s influence. For now, the acting director continues in the role, and the intelligence community faces continued uncertainty at its highest level of leadership.