Trump halts intel chief confirmation, renews vote curb demand (opens in new tab)

Trump last week picked Jay Clayton, who headed the US securities regulator during the president's first term, as his next director of national intelligence (DNI). The move came after both Democratic and Republican lawmakers opposed Trump's interim DNI chief Bill Pulte -- a loyalist housing official who was appointed despite having no intelligence background. But just hours before the hearing for Clayton, Trump said he was postponing it, in a move that makes Pulte effectively certain to stay o...