Trump names Clayton, Ferguson, Michael and Kupor to a Super Intelligence Force

President Donald Trump on Sunday named four officials to lead what he called a Super Intelligence Force, a task force that will report to him and to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. The members are Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, Federal Trade Commission chairman Andrew Ferguson, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, and Office of Personnel Management director Scott Kupor.

On Truth Social, Trump wrote that the force would coordinate the federal government so that America continued to lead the world in what he called super intelligence, which he said many people regard as bigger than the Industrial Revolution and the internet. He said it would protect the interests and improve the lives of Americans, and that it would handle the government's contact with consumers, public-interest groups, religious organisations, infrastructure providers and AI companies.

Four jobs, four different fights

The four chairs map onto four arguments already running inside the administration. Clayton's presence follows a push by intelligence agencies for a larger role in evaluating models, after cybersecurity worries about Anthropic's Mythos and other new systems. Ferguson brings the competition authority. Michael sits in the research and engineering job at the Pentagon, the office that buys and tests military technology. Kupor runs the federal personnel office, which is the route into hiring rules, workplace use and any decision about how civil servants may use the tools.

CNN reported on Friday that Trump was expected to tap Clayton to lead the group. Sunday's post names four leaders rather than a single czar. The Washington Post described the structure as a response to turf fights over who should write the government's AI policy. A committee of four, reporting to the president and the chief of staff, keeps each agency in the room and keeps none of them in sole charge.

From AI Force to a renaming

Last month Trump said he would create an AI Force and name an AI czar. He compared that idea to the Space Force, the military branch set up in his first term, which produced confusion about whether he meant a new armed service. He has since tried to rebrand the technology as super intelligence, and he has signed an executive order telling agencies to change the name in government documents. Sunday's task force uses the new label. It is not, on the text of the post, a sixth military service. No statute creates it. No budget line was attached to the announcement.

The announcement also follows public arguments about guardrails, including cases in which AI agents were reported to have tried to break into federal databases. The task force's stated job is coordination and engagement, not a statute. It does not, by itself, set a safety standard, a liability rule or an export control. Those still sit with Congress, the FTC, the commerce department and the Pentagon. Ferguson's seat on the force matters for that reason. The FTC already has cases and studies on model-makers. A chairman who also sits on a White House task force can carry those cases into the same room as the intelligence chief.

What the roster does not decide

Clayton is not a career intelligence officer. He came to the director of national intelligence job from a markets and enforcement background. His place at the head of the reported shortlist, and then as one of four, tracks the agencies' request to review advanced models as a security problem rather than only as a commercial product. Michael's Pentagon brief is acquisition and engineering. If the force ever writes a testing rule for military use, his office is the one that would have to apply it. Kupor's office is the one that would write the memo telling federal staff what they may paste into a model.

The operable fact is the roster and the reporting line. Clayton, Ferguson, Michael and Kupor lead. They report to Trump and Wiles. Their brief is the government's contact with firms, infrastructure providers and public-interest groups. Whether that committee writes rules, or only holds meetings, will show up in the first memo that carries one of their signatures. Until that memo exists, Sunday's post is a naming decision and a label change, not a regulatory text.