Trump Pulls Plug on Intel Nominee's Hearing, Leaving Surveillance Law in Limbo

President Trump ordered the Senate to cancel a confirmation hearing for his own nominee to lead the nation's intelligence community Wednesday, blindsiding Republican senators and leaving a sprawling surveillance apparatus without a confirmed director — while a key spy law sat expired on the floor.

The move came in a Truth Social post just before 4 a.m. Eastern time, less than 12 hours before Jay Clayton was scheduled to appear before the Senate intelligence committee for what had been expected to be a swift, possibly bipartisan confirmation. Trump, attending the G7 Summit in France at the time, said he was blocking Clayton's confirmation until the Senate confirms Jamie McDonald as a U.S. attorney — an entirely separate nomination — and until reauthorization of FISA Section 702 is tied to passage of the SAVE America Act, a GOP voting bill requiring documentary proof of citizenship at voter registration.

For Treasure Coast residents, the consequences cut close: FISA Section 702 — the surveillance authority whose renewal Trump is now holding hostage — expired Friday after the Senate failed to act. The law underpins a significant share of U.S. counterterrorism intelligence collection, including threats monitored along Florida's coastline and at Port Everglades in Broward County, roughly 90 miles south of Martin County.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, announced the postponement in a statement that barely concealed his frustration. "It's regrettable that the president has directed Jay Clayton not to appear at his confirmation hearing today," Cotton wrote, adding that he hoped to proceed "in the near future."

Bill Pulte — director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency with no intelligence background — will serve as acting director of national intelligence, a role he was appointed to earlier this month. Pulte has drawn bipartisan concern after using his current position to publicly accuse multiple perceived political opponents of mortgage fraud on social media; each has denied wrongdoing.

Clayton, a federal prosecutor currently running the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, previously served as SEC chairman during Trump's first term and oversaw the indictment of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in his current role. He was expected to be confirmed before June 19, the date Trump said Pulte would formally step into the acting role.

The director of national intelligence oversees 18 agencies and delivers the President's Daily Brief. The post has been vacant since Tulsi Gabbard resigned last month, citing her husband's cancer diagnosis.

The SAVE America Act, whose passage Trump is now demanding as a condition for the hearing, failed a Senate vote earlier this month. No new vote date has been announced.

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