WASHINGTON — Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said it was “regrettable” that President Trump directed his nominee for director of national intelligence, Jay Clayton, not to appear at his confirmation hearing on June 17, 2026, after Trump abruptly moved to delay the proceedings hours earlier in a Truth Social post. “It’s regrettable that the president has directed Jay Clayton not to appear at his confirmation hearing today,” Cotton wrote on X. “Mr. Clayton is a patriot and a highly qualified nominee, as the president has said repeatedly. While today’s hearing is now unfortunately postponed, I look forward to proceeding with his confirmation in the near future.”
Cotton’s statement came roughly two hours after he had initially indicated the hearing would proceed as planned. “Jay Clayton is a pending nominee before the Intelligence Committee,” Cotton had said earlier in the day. “We will proceed with his hearing as scheduled unless the president directs him not to appear or withdraws his nomination.”
Trump’s Truth Social Post
Trump’s move came in a lengthy Truth Social post published at roughly 3:54 a.m. ET on Wednesday, while the president was attending the G7 summit in France. “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, referring to his pick to replace Clayton as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. “In the meantime, Bill Pulte will remain as the Acting Director of National Intelligence.”
Trump tied the delay to a broader dispute over reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a surveillance authority that lapsed on June 12 after a House vote to extend it failed 198-218. “I will not approve FISA without THE SAVE AMERICA ACT going along with it. Not complicated, actually, the Republicans fell into a trap,” Trump wrote. The SAVE America Act is a GOP-backed voting bill that would require documentary proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, for federal voter registration. The bill passed the House but has stalled in the Senate, where it lacks the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
The Pulte-Clayton Dispute
The standoff traces back to an earlier deal in which Senate Republicans and the White House had agreed Clayton, the former SEC chairman and current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, would replace Bill Pulte as the permanent DNI nominee. Pulte, who currently serves as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has no national security experience and has used his current role to publicly accuse several of Trump’s perceived political opponents, including Federal Reserve official Lisa Cook and New York Attorney General Letitia James, of mortgage fraud. Democrats had said they would not support FISA reauthorization with Pulte in the DNI role.
In his post, Trump accused Democrats of reneging on a prior commitment. “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. “However, the Republicans moved so fast with the hearings of the Great Jay Clayton… 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.”
Trump also cited concerns over the Senate confirmation of Jamie McDonald, his pick to replace Clayton as U.S. Attorney. “I don’t want to take Jay Clayton away from the great job he is doing until Jamie is in place,” Trump wrote, adding that he wanted to wait on the DNI confirmation until McDonald clears the Senate.
Reaction From Both Parties
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) was sharply critical of the move. “Over the past two weeks, President Trump has careened from one personnel decision and political demand to the next — first installing Bill Pulte, then nominating Jay Clayton, then demanding unrelated legislation be attached to FISA reauthorization, and now threatening to derail both the confirmation process and a bipartisan reauthorization effort,” Warner wrote, calling it “an extraordinary display of dysfunction.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) appeared caught off guard by the demand. “Good question,” Thune said when asked why Trump was making the demand, adding that senators would “have to take it a day at a time until we get more clarity on kind of what the White House position is, I guess.”
Some Republicans voiced frustration with the president’s approach even while defending his underlying goals. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said the SAVE America Act “doesn’t go together naturally” with FISA reauthorization, adding that “must-pass legislation is only must-pass until Democrats decide they don’t want to pass it,” and that Thune was “wise to resist” attaching the two. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) defended Trump’s demand on the merits of the underlying policy, telling reporters, “If we actually voted up here based on what the American public wanted, this would pass in a heartbeat.”
Stakes for Intelligence Operations
The dispute leaves Section 702 of FISA in continued lapse, a authority that allows U.S. intelligence agencies to conduct surveillance of foreign targets located outside the country, though it can incidentally capture Americans’ communications. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford told NewsNation, “I don’t think you can overstate the importance of this program.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued Trump was undermining his own stated priorities. “Trump is twisting himself up in knots and jumping through hoops to make it impossible to reauthorize FISA right now, and he is embarrassing his Republican colleagues in the process,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
It remains unclear when the Senate Intelligence Committee will reschedule Clayton’s confirmation hearing. Pulte is set to formally begin serving as acting DNI on June 19, under the timeline Trump laid out in his post.