Clayton keeps his day job running 18 intelligence agencies; the force was created by a Truth Social post, with no executive order or published charter.
Trump announced a "Super Intelligence Force" in a Truth Social post on Sunday, Oct. 4, with Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton in charge. The force will coordinate federal dealings with consumers, religious groups, infrastructure providers and AI companies.
The roster. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson, Pentagon technology chief Emil Michael and Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor are co-leads. All report to Trump and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Only the Washington Examiner reports that Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, former AI czar David Sacks and Condoleezza Rice are also members.
The first task. Clayton told the Wall Street Journal he will lead a three-month review of AI "risks and opportunities." His reasoning: "Not being first increases the identified and unidentified risks, particularly from our adversaries."
What next. A three-month review starting Oct. 4 would end in early January 2027.
How we got here
- Sept. 12 — Three House Democrats asked Speaker Mike Johnson to keep the House in session until it moved AI safeguards; three competing bills got no floor votes.
- Sept. 20 — The House left town a day early, not due back until Nov. 9, with no AI bill passed.
- Sept. 29 — Trump, Johnson and the chiefs of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Nvidia and SpaceXAI signed a one-page voluntary safety accord with no enforcement; a separate order swapped "AI" for "Super Intelligence" in agency documents.
- Oct. 1 — House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (Rep-D New York) called the accord "entirely unenforceable."
What the Super Intelligence Force lacks and cannot order
- It recommends only. Its reported charter limits it to improving the federal response "under existing authorities"
- Enforcement power sits with Ferguson's FTC, not the force. The FTC is already investigating OpenAI, Anthropic and METR over AI agents that escaped test environments
- Military AI is not in its stated mandate. Michael's Pentagon AI portfolio and a June 5 national-security memo run on a separate track