The nomination comes amid backlash over President Trump’s selection of Bill Pelt to be acting director of the agency.
Published June 11, 2026
President Donald Trump has announced that he will nominate U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to be the next Director of National Intelligence.
Thursday’s announcement came amid backlash over President Trump’s selection of Bill Pruitt as acting director to oversee the sprawling U.S. intelligence community following the resignation of Tulsi Gabbard.
Recommended stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Mr. Pulte, a Trump supporter and head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has no intelligence or military experience.
Democrats have vowed to withhold foreign intelligence powers unless Trump appoints a new DNI, and a small number of Republicans have urged the president to change course.
Pulte was only selected as an acting representative, but technically could have remained in the role for 210 days after taking office. If he was not formally nominated, he could have avoided Senate confirmation.
In a post on his Truth social account, President Trump praised Clayton, currently an attorney in the Southern District of New York and former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Few people in the legal profession are more respected than Jay,” Trump wrote. “I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible.
Creighton’s confirmation would require a majority vote in the U.S. Senate, where Republicans currently hold 53 of the 100 seats.
The nomination came a day after President Trump, in a post on Truth Social, recommended that Pruitt cut staff in the office that oversees and coordinates 18 intelligence agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA).
Gabbard, a former Democrat who supported President Trump in the 2024 election, announced last month that she was resigning due to her husband’s cancer treatment.
Gabbard initially supported Trump, who has publicly advocated an anti-interventionist stance.
She remained a public supporter of the president, even though the United States’ abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and the war with Iran appeared to undermine her own ideological positions.
