Trump cancels – President Donald Trump directed Jay Clayton not to appear for a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing for director of national intelligence, days after Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act expired. The delay has thrown momentum off a fast-moving
The morning confirmation hearing for U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton didn’t survive the president’s own phone screen.
Hours before the scheduled start on Wednesday afternoon. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he would be cancelling the Senate hearing “RE: DNI today. ” adding that the process would not move forward until “Jamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney.” In the same post, he said “Bill Pulte will remain as the Acting Director of National Intelligence.”.
The announcement landed with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., confirming shortly afterward that the hearing was scuttled. “It’s regrettable that the president has directed Jay Clayton not to appear at his confirmation hearing today. Mr. Clayton is a patriot and a highly qualified nominee, as the president has said repeatedly,” Cotton wrote on X. “While today’s hearing is now unfortunately postponed, I look forward to proceeding with his confirmation in the near future.”.
Uncertainty swirled around why Clayton’s hearing was delayed in the first place—especially because it was tied to a larger deadline. It was unclear exactly when the White House will send Jamie McDonald’s nomination to the Senate. with a source familiar with the nomination telling MISRYOUM USA News that it had not been sent yet. If that is true, Clayton’s confirmation could take longer than Republicans had planned.
That timeline matters because Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act expired last week. Section 702 is a critical intelligence-gathering authority that allows warrantless surveillance of communications that may involve national security threats. With the authority already expired. delays in moving personnel into place could imperil Democrats and Republicans striking a deal to reauthorize it.
Democrats have vowed to not reapprove Section 702 unless Bill Pulte is removed from the DNI post. Critics have described Pulte as a partisan figure without intelligence experience, pointing in particular to his role at the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
In response to the president’s abrupt reversal, Sen. Mark Warner. D-Va. the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee. called it “an extraordinary display of dysfunction.” In a statement. Warner said the president’s intervention “only underscores a simple reality: the biggest obstacle to resolving these issues has not been Senate Democrats or Senate Republicans. It has been the chaos and confusion coming from the White House itself.”.
At a later press conference Wednesday, Warner suggested the president could withdraw Clayton’s nomination despite the expectation among some Republicans that Clayton would have received bipartisan support. “I wonder whether Jay Clayton knows whether he has been postponed or withdrawn,” Warner said.
Republicans, meanwhile, have also tied their urgency to the calendar. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the Senate would “have to take it a day at a time til we get more clarity on kind of what the White House position is.”
Beyond the DNI fight, Trump widened the pressure campaign to the Section 702 negotiations themselves. In his Truth Social post. Trump asked for the controversial voter-ID bill known as the SAVE America Act—identified in the post as “THE SAVE AMERICA ACT”—to be attached to FISA reauthorization as a condition for his approval. “Therefore. to add a slight bit of intrigue but. for the Good of the Nation. and the People of our Country. I will not approve FISA without THE SAVE AMERICA ACT going along with it. ” he wrote.
Democrats have said they will not support the legislation to change voting access.
Trump also accused Democrats of breaking their deal to vote for FISA if Pulte is gone. writing: “[T]he Republicans moved so fast with the hearings of the Great Jay Clayton. current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, that Pulte would be gone before the Dumocrats would vote on FISA. Now. the Dumocrats are saying they will vote against FISA — So. the Republicans wound up having fulfilled their commitment. but Dumocrats broke the Deal.”.
Even among Republicans, the president’s handling of the process drew frustration. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., a Trump ally, said in a statement that he was disappointed “while Sen. Thune has very meticulously and skillfully managed a process that ends up with another Trump victory gets upended by an impulsive post of some sort.” Cramer added. “It’s frustrating. but it’s also not that abnormal these days.”.
Trump Jay Clayton director of national intelligence Senate hearing Bill Pulte Section 702 FISA Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Tom Cotton Mark Warner John Thune SAVE America Act