No, Trump Did Not Pick Jay Clayton as Director of National Intelligence — That Was Tulsi Gabbard

A claim spread online that Donald Trump selected Jay Clayton to be his Director of National Intelligence. This is false. Clayton and the DNI role are not connected in any way.

What Trump actually nominated Clayton for is the position of U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York — the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan. According to NBC News and the Associated Press, Clayton, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump's first term, was tapped for that prosecutorial role, not an intelligence one.

The Director of National Intelligence job went to an entirely different person. Reuters and The New York Times both reported that Trump announced Tulsi Gabbard as his pick for DNI on November 13, 2024. Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman turned Trump ally, would oversee the country's 18 intelligence agencies if confirmed — a role with no overlap with Clayton's nomination.

To be clear about the strongest version of the claim: Clayton is a prominent figure with a serious government background, and his name was legitimately in the news at the same time as the DNI announcement. But being newsworthy does not make the mix-up accurate. These are two distinct federal positions, and the evidence from multiple major outlets is consistent and clear.

This kind of error is worth watching for during busy news cycles when an administration announces multiple high-profile picks in a short window. Details blur, social media posts drop key context, and a name attached to one headline gets copy-pasted into another story. Always check what specific role a person was actually nominated for before sharing.