Republican senator defies Trump after president tries to blow up agenda: 'We will proceed'

President Donald Trump canceled the hearing for his own nominee for Director of National Intelligence, Jay Clayton, in a dead-of-morning Truth Social post on Wednesday — but at least some Senate Republicans are signaling they plan to go forward anyway.

Clayton is nominated to succeed Tulsi Gabbard, who is resigning from office this month. Democrats and many Republicans are concerned about Trump's selection of Bill Pulte, a partisan loyalist with no intelligence credentials, to serve as acting DNI, which pressured Trump into selecting Clayton in the first place — and now Trump and the Senate are at odds about how fast to confirm Clayton to try to avoid Pulte serving in the role at all.

Following Trump's outburst, Senate Intelligence Committee chair Tom Cotton (R-AR), whose committee is responsible for reviewing the nomination, signaled on X that as far as he's concerned, the hearing is going ahead anyway because Trump has not formally done anything yet other than make a proclamation on social media.

"Jay Clayton is a pending nominee before the Intelligence Committee," wrote Cotton. "We will proceed with his hearing as scheduled unless the president directs him not to appear or withdraws his nomination."

According to Punchbowl News' Laura Weiss, Trump's stated reason for delaying the Clayton hearing is that he wants Jamie McDonald, Trump's pick to replace Clayton's current position of U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be confirmed first. However, the White House "hasn’t even officially sent McDonald’s nomination to the Senate yet, per source familiar with the process."

Pulte, who currently heads up the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has triggered a string of controversies by using his powers to hunt for irregularities in the finances of Trump's political critics. Experts fear he could even more egregiously abuse national security powers if allowed to serve as acting DNI.