Spy Chief Jay Clayton to Lead Trump’s New Super Intelligence Force
Trending Topics Jakob Steinschaden ● Covered by 5 sources
Trump put spy chief Jay Clayton in charge of AI too. That gives the intelligence world a louder voice in how the U.S. shapes the tech.
Based on reporting by Trending Topics, Jakob Steinschaden — read the original for the full story.
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America’s top intelligence official is being handed another job: AI czar. President Trump said on Truth Social that Jay Clayton, the director of national intelligence, will stay atop the U.S. intelligence community while also leading a newly created “Super Intelligence Force.”
Clayton won’t be doing it alone. According to The Washington Examiner, the force will also include Andrew Ferguson, the Federal Trade Commission chairman; Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s chief technology officer and a former Uber executive; and Scott Kupor, the director of the Office of Personnel Management and a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz. The four will report directly to Trump and his chief of staff, Susie Wiles.
Trump says the point is to keep America ahead in what he calls “Super Intelligence,” a term he has pushed as a replacement for artificial intelligence. He has even sparked a rush on .si domains by floating the name. The branding is odd; the power grab is not.
Clayton’s views line up with Trump’s current approach. In a TV interview in late September, he argued against slowing AI development across the industry, saying it would be reckless to step back and let China move ahead. He also said existing product liability laws should be enough, for now, to deal with the risks.
That puts him in a stronger position than David Sacks, Trump’s previous AI and crypto czar, who served part time. Clayton holds a cabinet-level post, became director of national intelligence in August, and brings direct oversight of an intelligence system with a budget of more than $80 billion. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was also considered, but Trump said he stayed at Treasury because he was doing a great job there.
The appointment is likely to please national security hawks who want more AI inside war targeting, cyber operations and intelligence analysis. Privacy advocates will see something else: the spy chief now helping shape policy for the very companies whose models millions of Europeans feed with data every day. After Snowden, that’s not a small detail. It’s the whole argument coming back.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the classic Washington move: call it innovation, hand it to the security state, and hope nobody notices the surveillance reflex in the room. Europe should treat this as a reminder that “AI policy” often means data leverage dressed up as strategy. The spy chief in charge is not subtle, which at least saves everyone some time.
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