Trump cancels – President Donald Trump canceled a planned Wednesday Senate confirmation hearing for his intelligence chief nominee Jay Clayton, saying the hearing will not move forward until Clayton’s replacement as Manhattan U.S. attorney is confirmed. Trump also said acting
Geneva —
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump moved to stop a confirmation moment that was already scheduled.
In a post on Truth Social. Trump said he would cancel the planned Senate hearing for his nominee to serve as director of national intelligence. Jay Clayton. unless Clayton’s replacement as Manhattan U.S. attorney is confirmed. Trump wrote that the hearing would not proceed “until Jamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney.”.
“We are cancelling the Senate Hearing RE: DNI today, and will not be going forward until Jamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney,” Trump wrote. “In the meantime, Bill Pulte will remain as the Acting Director of National Intelligence.”
A cancellation like this would typically be decided by the committee holding the hearing — in this case. the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was unclear if Trump had spoken to the panel’s chairman, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, before posting his message. The hearing was set to take place at 2:00 p.m. ET Wednesday.
The immediate impact is personal and political at the same time. Pulte. Trump’s controversial pick to lead the intelligence community as acting head. was slated to begin the job on Friday. Trump’s insistence that Pulte will remain acting if the Clayton hearing is delayed signals that the transition schedule — already tight — is now being pulled in both directions.
Pulte’s selection has already drawn outcry among Democrats. They refused to provide the votes needed to pass an extension of a key foreign surveillance program. When Trump later nominated Clayton to serve permanently as DNI. Senate Republicans expedited the nomination process with the hope that Pulte would not remain in the role for long.
But in Trump’s Wednesday post, the frustration wasn’t just about the policy fight. It was aimed at how the legislative chessboard has moved since Republicans tried to push the nomination forward.
Trump wrote that he believed Republicans and Democrats had essentially struck an understanding over the surveillance law extension. and that the parties then moved on separate tracks. “The Republicans agreed with Dumocrats to remove very fair. and talented. William Pulte. from serving as Acting DNI in return for getting FISA approved by the Dumocrats. ” Trump wrote. He added that Republicans then “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.”.
Trump then argued that the sequence left Republicans and Democrats at odds over the deal’s outcome. “Now, the Dumocrats are saying they will vote against FISA — So, the Republicans wound up having fulfilled their commitment, but Dumocrats broke the Deal,” he wrote.
Throughout the post, Trump also repeated his demand that the extension of the surveillance law be paired with sweeping voting overhaul legislation known as the SAVE America Act.
The message lands at a moment when the hearing for DNI leadership was already on the calendar. and when the intelligence transition — anchored to how quickly a confirmation can move — has become entangled with a broader fight over surveillance authority in the U.S. and what lawmakers are willing to trade for it.
Donald Trump Jay Clayton Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte Senate Intelligence Committee Tom Cotton FISA surveillance law extension SAVE America Act Jamie McDonald Manhattan U.S. Attorney