Trump Is Expected to Name Spy Chief Jay Clayton as His Next AI Czar

President Donald Trump is expected to name Jay Clayton, the director of national intelligence, as the White House's next AI czar, CNN reported Friday, citing two sources familiar with the discussions. One of the sources said Trump could announce the decision as early as Friday.

The White House pushed back immediately. "Any personnel announcement will be announced directly by the President. Any reporting until then is baseless speculation," a White House official told CNN. That denial keeps the appointment in the realm of reporting rather than fact — but the public trail makes Clayton the overwhelming favorite: Polymarket's market on Trump's 2026 AI-czar pick prices him at 92%.

The report and the denial

CNN's report escalated what CBS News first broke Thursday evening: that Clayton was the frontrunner for the job. According to CNN's two sources, Clayton would also remain in his role as director of national intelligence — an unusual dual-hat arrangement pairing the country's top intelligence post with its most visible AI-policy job.

The timing fits Trump's own stated window. On Tuesday he told reporters he was "very close to making a decision," adding, "I'll be naming one, I'd say, over the next three or four days," after checking with "the companies" and House GOP leadership first. Trump previously told Axios that Clayton "would be a good AI czar," and when Clayton's name was put to him on Tuesday he said: "I have somebody in mind... Clayton is a good man. He's right here. That's a good idea."

From Wall Street's top cop to the spy shop

Clayton is an unusual pick for an AI-policy role. He led the Securities and Exchange Commission from 2017 to 2020 — authorizing the Ripple lawsuit on his last day in office — and before that served as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan. The Senate confirmed him as director of national intelligence in July 2026, succeeding acting director Bill Pulte's 40-day tenure; he now sits atop the nation's 18-agency intelligence community.

He has an AI record of his own. At his confirmation hearing he called artificial intelligence a "game changer," adding it was "not only an opportunity but a threat" — and that "when something's both an opportunity and a threat, you better get your arms around it." On CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday, he dodged the AI-czar question while calling superintelligence "a national security issue," argued against pausing U.S. model development, and said federal agencies such as the DOJ and FTC — not the civil tort system — are best suited to policing AI companies.

The Sacks precedent and the empty chair

This would be the second time Trump has named an AI czar. Venture capitalist David Sacks held the role — alongside a crypto portfolio — from December 2024 until March 2026, when he stepped down after reaching his time limit as a special government employee, per CNN. Sacks now co-chairs the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and still advises Trump on AI. His tenure was defined by a light-touch regulatory posture toward the industry.

Last month Trump said he would appoint a new AI adviser and create an "AI force," offering no details about either initiative or how it would be implemented. The personnel choice matters because the job would land at the center of an increasingly crowded AI-policy agenda.

The policy pile awaiting the next czar

On Sept. 29, Trump hosted Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Tesla's Elon Musk, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sundar Pichai at the White House to sign the White House Accord on Super Intelligence — a voluntary commitment to four layers of controls, from internal monitoring to independent external audits, that the parties say could eventually be codified into law. The accord followed Trump's executive order rebranding official U.S. AI terminology as "super intelligence."

The same day, Trump floated a 10-person committee "to watch over the whole enterprise," with what he called a "tremendous self-policing aspect." And on Thursday, Senators Josh Hawley and Chris Murphy introduced the bipartisan AI Agent Accountability Act, which would extend the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to AI agents — exposing operators to criminal and civil liability for recklessly causing hacking damage, and developers to liability for failing to implement reasonable safeguards. Hawley said: "If Big Tech companies are going to design AI agents that wreak havoc, these companies better be on the hook for any damage that is caused." Murphy said the bill "forces the heads of big AI companies to develop responsibly or face prison time for the damage done by their products to everyone else."

The appointment would also arrive as the debate over AI risk sharpens. Reuters noted that top AI researchers have warned about rogue AI agents, with bipartisan lawmakers demanding action — while Trump has repeatedly downplayed the fears and argued that additional regulation is unnecessary. A Clayton czarship would pair an intelligence chief steeped in cyber risk with an administration committed to the lightest regulatory hand in the developed world. Analyst Michael Parekh noted Clayton would likely be "a little more procedural" in negotiations with the tech industry, and that Trump wanted the pick in place ahead of his next meeting with China's Xi Jinping.

Open questions before Friday

For all the smoke, nothing is confirmed. The White House's denial is categorical; CNN's sourcing is anonymous; and the dual-hat arrangement — running the intelligence community while steering AI policy — remains what sources describe, not an official plan. The structure of Trump's promised "AI force" is undefined, and the 10-person committee is so far a "we're also thinking about" remark rather than a formal proposal.

TickerGrove treats this story as reported, not announced. If Trump names Clayton — Friday or later — the development becomes official, and the story shifts to what the country's spy chief does with its most consequential technology portfolio.