Jay Clayton to Lead Trump’s New AI Super Intelligence Force

Jay Clayton, the former Securities and Exchange Commission chair who built the federal government’s enforcement playbook for digital assets, has been tapped to lead President Donald Trump’s newly created “Super Intelligence Force.” The task force will serve as the central coordinating body for U.S. artificial intelligence policy across federal agencies.

Trump announced the initiative Sunday on Truth Social, positioning Clayton — currently serving as Director of National Intelligence — as the primary leader among a roster of senior administration officials. Industry observers have widely identified the DNI as the administration’s de facto AI czar, a role that places a career corporate lawyer and former financial regulator at the center of Washington’s most urgent technology race.

The appointment signals how the current administration views emerging technology governance: through the lens of regulatory enforcement and national security rather than pure engineering or computer science expertise. Clayton’s background suggests the task force may lean heavily toward compliance frameworks, industry oversight, and structured engagement with private-sector developers, mirroring tactics he previously deployed in financial markets.

Joining Clayton on the task force are Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, and Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor. The group reports directly to Trump and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. Its stated objective involves coordinating federal interactions with AI companies, critical infrastructure providers, consumer advocates, public interest groups, and religious organizations.

Unlike the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office established during the first Trump administration under the 2020 AI Act, which focused largely on research funding and interagency data sharing, this new body appears designed for direct executive control over industry relations. The announcement followed what Trump described as the “Historic White House Accord on Super Intelligence,” referencing recent meetings between the president and major tech executives who reportedly affirmed their obligations to the American public.

Clayton’s trajectory through federal power makes him one of the most consequential, if polarizing, figures in modern technology regulation. During his tenure as SEC chair from 2017 to 2020, he pioneered the agency’s regulation-by-enforcement strategy for blockchain technology. His SEC initiated 57 actions against crypto firms, initial coin offerings, and related projects. He frequently cited this tally as proof of the agency’s vigilance.

His final act as SEC chair cemented his legacy in the digital asset space. In December 2020, the agency filed a $1.3 billion lawsuit against Ripple Labs, alleging the company sold XRP as an unregistered security. That litigation provided the legal scaffolding his successor, Gary Gensler, later used to pursue major token issuers and centralized exchanges throughout the early 2020s. A federal judge ultimately ruled in 2023 that secondary market sales of XRP did not constitute securities transactions, though institutional sales were deemed violations — a split decision that left lasting ambiguity in token classification.

After leaving the SEC, Clayton shifted toward the private sector, advising One River Asset Management on digital assets in 2021 and joining the advisory board of crypto custodian Fireblocks. This pivot briefly aligned him with the industry he had aggressively policed.

He returned to government enforcement in 2025 when Trump installed him as interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. In that capacity, Clayton’s office advanced the prosecution of Roman Storm, a developer behind the Tornado Cash privacy protocol. The case tested whether writing open-source code could trigger criminal liability under money laundering statutes, drawing intense scrutiny from civil liberties advocates and software engineers who argued it chilled technological development.

Trump initially attempted to place Clayton atop the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office in 2020 while he still chaired the SEC, a move that raised immediate conflict-of-interest questions before being shelved.

The Super Intelligence Force arrives as global competition over AI infrastructure accelerates. Washington faces mounting pressure to balance rapid domestic deployment of large language models and autonomous systems against concerns over data privacy, algorithmic bias, and energy consumption. By placing a seasoned enforcement official at the helm, the White House is prioritizing regulatory discipline over laissez-faire innovation.

Trump’s announcement did not specify the task force’s operational timeline, budget, or statutory authority. The White House has not yet clarified whether the Super Intelligence Force will absorb existing AI policy functions currently scattered across the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, which maintains the voluntary AI Risk Management Framework, or the National Security Council.