Trump Kills Plan To Quickly Confirm New Intelligence Chief

President Donald Trump upended plans to quickly confirm a new director of national intelligence, announcing in an early morning post Wednesday that he did not want a scheduled hearing for Jay Clayton later in the day to move forward.

The move paves the way for close political ally Bill Pulte to move into the acting DNI role Friday, something members of both parties had been hoping to forestall by quickly confirming Clayton this week. It also throws a revival of a key surveillance power known as Section 702 in further doubt.

In the Truth Social post published just before 4 a.m., Trump claimed "Republicans fell into a trap" by rushing to confirm Clayton, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, and block Pulte — allowing a renewal of the spy law to move forward.

In addition to reiterating a demand that Republicans attach a GOP elections overhaul, the SAVE America Act, to any Section 702 extension, he demanded the Senate confirm his pick to replace Clayton as U.S. attorney, James McDonald, before allowing the permanent DNI nomination to move forward.

“Regarding the approval of our Great Patriot, Jay Clayton, 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, who is currently in France attending the G7 meeting, added. “In the meantime, Bill Pulte will remain as the Acting Director of National Intelligence."

Trump cannot unilaterally cancel a Senate hearing, and Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) announced Wednesday morning that there was no immediate change in plans.

"Jay Clayton is a pending nominee before the Intelligence Committee," he wrote on X. "We will proceed with his hearing as scheduled unless the president directs him not to appear or withdraws his nomination."

Whether or not the hearing proceeds, the announcement is yet another finger in the eye of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has struggled to reconcile Trump's demands with the wishes of his thin majority.

Some Senate Republicans, according to two additional people granted anonymity to speak candidly, believe Trump is mad over the GOP pushback against Pulte, who runs the Federal Housing Finance Agency and has no national security experience. He's also being encouraged to continue pushing for the elections bill by Senate conservatives who have publicly crusaded for its passage.

Thune has repeatedly warned that the elections bills does not have to votes to pass the Senate and attaching it to the surveillance law would kill any chance of passage.

Trump has paid no heed to those warnings, insisting Wednesday that the two measures be linked.

"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,” Trump wrote, referencing the Foreign intelligence Surveillance Act that Section 702 is a part of.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said in an interview that Trump was unlikely to get his wish.

"Let me put it this way: I want a Porsche for my birthday. I'm probably not going to get it, and a FISA extension with the SAVE Act ... is not likely to pass in your or mine natural lifetime," he said.

But Kennedy said he understood what Trump is doing: "I think this is how he negotiates. ... He wants what he wants, and until he gets it, he just keeps pushing."