President Trump is expected to name Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton as White House AI czar, pairing spy leadership with tech oversight after this week’s industry meeting.

A source familiar with the matter told NBC News that Trump plans to give Clayton the artificial intelligence portfolio while Clayton keeps his post overseeing the nation’s spy agencies. The president teased the move this week and is most likely to announce it on social media as early as Friday.

The timing tracks a lengthy White House session Tuesday with executives from leading technology companies. Clayton attended that meeting. The expected dual role puts a trusted Trump veteran at the center of both national security and the administration’s approach to advanced computing.

White House officials have not confirmed the pick. One official pushed back hard when asked about the forthcoming announcement.

"Any personnel announcement will be announced directly by the President. Any reporting until then is baseless speculation."

That statement leaves the decision where Trump wants it: in his hands, on his timeline.

Clayton frames superintelligence as a security fight

On Wednesday, Clayton sat for a CNBC interview about the White House gathering. He did not treat artificial intelligence as a side project. He called the next leap in the technology a core defense concern.

"Superintelligence is a national security issue."

He added that the room shared that view.

"That was something that was recognized yesterday by not just the industry leaders, but everybody in the room."

Clayton also said the Trump administration would take a “whole-of-government approach” to regulating the technology. The administration has formally adopted “superintelligence” as its term for advanced AI. That language puts the issue in the same lane as other hard power problems, not as a boutique tech debate.

Clayton took over as Director of National Intelligence in August after Senate confirmation on a party-line vote. Before that, he served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. In Trump’s first term he chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission. He was earlier a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell. The résumé runs from markets to prosecutions to intelligence. The AI assignment would add another portfolio without stripping the first.

Trump backs self-policing after the tech sit-down

Just The News reported the same expected move and said the announcement could land on Truth Social as early as Friday, casting Clayton as the administration’s first AI czar while he continues as intelligence director. The outlet also noted Clayton’s presence at the Tuesday meeting with major tech executives.

After that session, Trump largely brushed off alarms about AI threats and pushed back on calls for stronger safety rules. Speaking to reporters at the White House, he put the burden on the companies themselves.

"I think I’m seeing tremendous self-policing, and they understand that they have to self-police, and it’s very hard for somebody to come outside, get into these. These models are very complex, and again, I believe they’re going to be used for the good."

He continued:

"And when they’re not, we’re going to be able to nab them. But there’s going to be a tremendous self-policing aspect."

That stance rejects the permanent expansion of outside regulators as the default answer. It treats the builders of the models as the first line of control, with government ready to step in when they fail. Employees at some top AI firms have warned that the technology could put humanity at risk. Trump’s public answer after meeting the industry was confidence in self-discipline backed by enforcement, not a new thicket of rules.

Earlier AI portfolio and a steady confirmation machine

David Sacks previously held the special adviser role for AI and crypto from January 2025 through March of this year. He now serves as co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Clayton’s expected assignment would place AI leadership inside the White House structure again, this time dual-hatted with the intelligence director’s office.

The pick fits a broader pattern of filling senior posts and moving nominees. Readers tracking personnel fights have already seen the Senate race to confirm Trump nominees before recesses and the pressure to keep key jobs staffed.

Clayton’s own path to the intelligence job drew close scrutiny. During the ODNI process he faced pointed questions in committee, including coverage of how he handled election-related queries while the panel weighed his nomination. That history is part of the public record voters can weigh as he takes on more responsibility.

Mass processing of nominees has also defined the year. One sweep cleared 74 Trump nominees in a single vote, leaving only a short list still pending. An AI czar designation for a sitting Senate-confirmed official would not require the same floor fight, but it still signals how the administration wants the technology governed: by people already inside the national security chain, not by a freestanding bureaucracy built from scratch.

Other high-profile names continue to move through the same machinery, from intelligence to health posts. The common thread is speed and loyalty to the president’s stated priorities once the votes are there.

For now, the Clayton report remains an expectation from a source familiar with the matter, not a finished order. The White House says only the president announces personnel moves. Trump has already previewed the direction in public: treat superintelligence as a security issue, prefer industry self-policing, and keep the authority to act when companies do not. Naming his intelligence director to the AI portfolio would put that preference in one office with the tools to see both the commercial race and the threat picture at once.

Lawful order and clear chains of command beat endless process. If Trump hands Clayton the AI file, he is betting that one accountable official beats a maze of new agencies every time.