The National Intelligence plot thickens: President Donald Trump abruptly postponed the Senate confirmation of Jay Clayton on Wednesday, his own nominee for director of national intelligence (DNI). Just hours before Clayton was expected at his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, Trump refused to move forward with the nomination unless Congress passes the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and attaches it to the SAVE Act, a Republican-backed voter ID measure that has stalled in the Senate. Congressional leadership on both sides had hoped to quickly confirm Clayton so they could reauthorize surveillance measures that lapsed. Trump’s reversal means that controversial acting Director Bill Pulte will take over the DNI position on Friday. Here’s a reminder of his intelligence qualifications (or lack thereof).
And over at the Fed: It was the beginning of a new chapter at the Federal Reserve yesterday, but the plot hasn’t changed… at least not yet. For the fourth time in a row, central bank officials left interest rates unchanged. But in his first meeting as Fed chair, Trump pick Kevin Warsh signaled rate hikes could be on the horizon as he emphasized his priority for the central bank to return inflation to 2%. The market responded swiftly to Warsh’s announcement, delivering the S&P 500’s worst performance for a new chair since 1994. President Trump, who joked earlier in the year he would sue Warsh over interest rates, responded with an enthusiastic: “It’s all right. Whatever.”
