The Real Story Behind Jay Clayton’s Nomination as DNI

As usual, the mainstream media buried the lead

Photo by mk. s on Unsplash

I suppose everyone has been wondering why I haven’t ranted about Trump wanting to nominate Bill Pulte to be the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). It’s right up my alley. He’s completely unqualified for that office.

I did seriously consider ranting about it. But when I thought about it, I realized that it is just par for the course (pun intended) for Trump. Nominating unqualified people for important offices, that is. Just look at Petey Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. He used to be a Fox Newscaster. Or how about Kash Petel as head of the FBI. Didn’t he used to be a podcaster? And then there is RFK, Jr. as head of Health and Human Services. His anti-vax stance is actively killing Americans.

Yeah, nominating Bill Pulte is not unusual. Trump loves surrounding himself with people who are less qualified and dumber (with a “b”!) than he is.

Now it appears that he got so much pushback from senators who have to confirm the fool, that Trump has backed down and is going to nominate Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for Manhattan and the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission instead.

Before we get into the nitty gritty of this nomination, let’s pause for a moment and talk about that “pushback.” Does this mean that Republicans are finally standing up to Trump?

YES!! And not just any Republicans. These are Republicans that have lost their primaries to Trump endorsed MAGA candidates or are retiring because they are sick of having to constantly bend the knee to Trump.

This is yet another case of MAGA morons not thinking things through. Trump and his sycophants thought it would be a great idea to defeat incumbent Republican senators who weren’t loyal enough and replace them with zealots who are willing to die for the cause.

Just one teeny tiny problem with that. The midterms aren’t until November and the winners won’t be sworn in until January 2027 leaving all of those bitter defeated incumbent Republican senators stewing in their juices until January. And since they don’t have to worry about being reelected or keeping Trump happy, they are now free to do whatever the fuck they want, including opposing legislation and refusing to confirm Trump’s nominations of incompetents.

Trump’s life is going to be misery until January. It’s a beautiful thing.

But back to senators refusing to confirm Pulte as DNI. Trump had to back down and nominate someone more palatable to the Senate. How did he come up with Clayton? The official story is that Clayton was recommended by the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, but if you dig a little deeper, it turns out that Clayton has been playing golf and socializing regularly with Trump since he took over as U.S. attorney in April 2025.

But still, why Clayton? Listening to Trum’s endless recitations of his grievances while allowing him to win at golf by cheating outrageously, wouldn’t seem to be enough.

As usual, the mainstream media, in this case the New York Times, has buried the lead. Here’s the REAL reason Trump wants Clayton as DNI: he is totally on board with Trump and his allegations of election fraud.

And there you have it. We already know that anyone Trump nominates for office has to swear loyalty to him and make a promise on an issue that is important to him, in this case, enforcing his claims of election fraud.

And what does the DNI have to do with elections which are, according to the Constitution, the purview of the states and Congress? Well, you may recall that Tulsi Gabbard, who is leaving as DNI, was present when the FBI conducted a raid in Georgia and seized voting records. Trump was quite pleased with her work on election fraud and apparently expects the same from her successor, Clayton.

So we are getting a preview of Trump’s actions after the midterms. He will contest any elections that are lost by Republicans or won by slim margins by Republicans. And he will have his golfing buddy right in the thick of it, using his power as the DNI to “prove” election fraud, using our own intelligence agencies against us to manipulate the outcome of our elections.