Trump Set to Name DNI Jay Clayton as Second White House AI Czar

President Trump is expected to name Jay Clayton, his director of national intelligence, as the White House's new AI czar, with an announcement that could come as soon as Friday, October 2, 2026, according to CNN and Axios, each citing two people familiar with the discussions.

The twist: Clayton would reportedly keep his current job running the intelligence community while adding AI policy to his plate, according to sources cited by Jennifer Jacobs of AOL and separately by Yahoo News. That would make one appointee responsible for both America's spy agencies and its approach to regulating the fastest-moving technology sector in the economy.

A White House official told CNN and CBS News the same line: "Any personnel announcement will be announced directly by the President. Any reporting until then is baseless speculation." Trump himself has not confirmed the pick. He told Axios this week he has "somebody in mind" and, when pressed on Clayton specifically, called him "a good man" and said it was "a good idea."

Who Clayton Is

Clayton is a lawyer by trade, not a technologist. He served as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan and then chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission for most of Trump's first term. The Senate confirmed him as director of national intelligence in July, according to NDTV Profit and AOL, succeeding Bill Pulte, who had served as acting intelligence chief for about 40 days.

At his confirmation hearing, Clayton described AI in blunt terms: "When something's both an opportunity and a threat, you better get your arms around it." In a CNBC interview this week, he said the administration would take a "whole-of-government approach" to the technology and called superintelligence "a national security issue," using the term the administration has formally adopted for advanced AI.

The Predecessor

Clayton would be the second person to hold the AI czar title. Venture capitalist David Sacks took the role at the start of Trump's second term, covering AI and crypto policy, before stepping down in March 2026 after reaching the time limit on his status as a special government employee, according to NDTV Profit. Sacks continues to co-chair the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

The Backdrop: A White House Summit and a Voluntary Pact

The expected appointment follows a Tuesday meeting at the White House where Trump gathered executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Nvidia and Elon Musk's SpaceXAI, according to AOL and Yahoo News. The companies agreed to a set of voluntary safety standards covering internal controls and external audits of their AI models. Trump called the agreement "morally binding" and "almost like a constitution," adding, "I think I'm seeing tremendous self-policing, and they understand that they have to self-police."

That voluntary, industry-written approach is exactly the kind of light-touch regulation Trump has favored. He has downplayed warnings about AI risk, argues that slowing development would hand China an advantage, and says existing federal law enforcement can handle bad actors. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have pushed for "pacing the frontier" to manage risk, while Sacks and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have argued the doomsday warnings are overblown. Trump announced plans for an "AI czar" and an "AI Force" last month, posting on social media: "Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!" He has offered few specifics on what the AI Force would actually do.

The Fair Concern

Handing one person control over both the intelligence community and federal AI policy is a legitimate thing to flag, not a conspiracy theory. Critics of concentrating power this way would note that the DNI oversees surveillance and classified threat assessment, while an AI czar shapes economic and regulatory policy touching every major tech company in the country. This arrangement creates less separation between the agencies that watch Americans and the office deciding how AI companies get governed. The administration's defenders would counter that AI is already a national security matter, Clayton already deals with cyber and AI threats in his intelligence role, and adding the title formalizes work he's effectively doing anyway. Neither point has been tested yet, because the appointment hasn't been formally made.

The News International's write-up on the expected pick garbled the sequence, describing Clayton as "anticipated to be named Director of National Intelligence." He already holds that role, having been confirmed by the Senate in July, according to NDTV Profit and AOL. He's not getting that job; he already has it, and would be adding AI oversight on top of it.

Trump told reporters this week he planned to name an AI czar within three or four days and said he wanted to consult AI companies and House Republican leadership before finalizing the choice, according to NDTV Profit. Until he posts it himself, every outlet reporting Clayton's name is working off sourcing the White House itself is calling speculation.