Office of the Director of National Intelligence

In 1955 a congressionally commissioned blue-ribbon study proposed that the Director of Central Intelligence use a deputy to run the Central Intelligence AgencyCentral Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an independent U.S. intelligence agency established under the National Security Act of 1947 to provide national security intelligence to senior U.S. policymakers. It is headquartered in Langley, Virginia.Open the full entry so that the director could concentrate on coordinating the wider intelligence effort; later studies repeated the idea for five decades.⁠[1]

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, revealed gaps in the intelligence framework and revived the push for reform. The 9/11 Commission’s final report, released in July 2004, proposed creating a national intelligence director, and in August 2004 George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge W. Bush (born 1946) is an American politician and Republican who worked in the energy business and was a part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team before becoming the 46th governor of Texas in 1995 and serving as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009.Open the full entry signed four executive orders to reform the Intelligence Community without legislation.⁠[1][2]

George W. Bush signed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) into law on December 17, 2004, establishing the position of Director of National Intelligence.⁠[2][1]

In February 2005 the President nominated John D. Negroponte, then ambassador to Iraq, as the first Director of National Intelligence and Air Force Lieutenant General Michael V. Hayden as the first Principal Deputy DNI. Both were sworn in in the Oval Office on April 21, 2005, and ODNI began operations at 7 a.m. on April 22.⁠[1][2]

Tulsi GabbardTulsi GabbardTulsi Gabbard (born 1981) is an American politician and military officer who represented Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives and served as U.S. director of national intelligence from February 2025 to June 2026; a former Democrat, she later moved to the Republican Party.Open the full entry took the oath of office on February 12, 2025, becoming the eighth Senate-confirmed Director of National Intelligence.⁠[3]

In August 2025 ODNI announced a reorganization to streamline the office and reduce redundancies: it eliminated three mission centers, the National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center, the Foreign Malign Influence Center and the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, integrating their core functions into the National Intelligence Council; dropped global health as a core mission area; closed the National Intelligence University; and planned to reduce staff by more than 40 percent by the end of fiscal year 2025.⁠[4]

On May 22, 2026, Gabbard announced in a letter posted on X that she was resigning as Director of National Intelligence, effective June 30, 2026.⁠[5]

The Senate confirmed Jay ClaytonJay ClaytonJay Clayton (Walter Joseph Clayton III) is an American lawyer and government official who has served as U.S. Director of National Intelligence since August 2026 and, from October of that year, also as the White House’s head of artificial intelligence affairs (“AI czar”). He practiced at Sullivan & Cromwell for more than two decades, chaired the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2017 to 2020 and was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2025 to 2026.Open the full entry the week before his swearing-in, and Donald Trump congratulated him on the confirmation in a statement dated July 28. Clayton took the oath of office on August 3, 2026, becoming the ninth person to hold the post. He had served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and as Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange CommissionU.S. Securities and Exchange CommissionThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is the federal securities regulator of the United States. Created during the Great Depression by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and led by five commissioners, it has a three-part mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation.Open the full entry from May 2017 to December 2020, and had been chair of the board of Apollo Global Management, audit committee chair at American ExpressAmerican ExpressAmerican Express Company is a payments company headquartered in New York that issues credit and charge cards and operates its own payments network; founded in 1850, it is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.Open the full entry, and a partner and senior policy adviser at Sullivan & Cromwell.⁠[6]

As of November 2026, ODNI’s website lists its leadership as Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and Principal Deputy DNI Aaron Lukas. Its listed components include two mission centers, the National Counterterrorism Center and the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, and the Office of Economic Security and Emerging Technologies, Mission Integration, and Policy and Capabilities.⁠[7][2]

The Director of National Intelligence heads the Intelligence Community and is appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate; the DNI oversees the intelligence operations of each member organization, identifies intelligence gaps and integrates the elements to improve information sharing. ODNI also serves as the main adviser to the President and the National Security Council and coordinates the President’s Daily Brief staff and the National Intelligence Council. By statute the DNI directs the allocation of National Intelligence Program funds, manages the tasking, collection, analysis, production and dissemination of national intelligence, and protects intelligence sources and methods. The fiscal 2026 request for the National Intelligence Program and the Military Intelligence Program totaled $115.5 billion: $81.9 billion and $33.6 billion respectively.⁠[2][8][4]

The 18 members of the Intelligence Community listed by ODNI are the independent agencies ODNI and the Central Intelligence Agency; the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office and Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force intelligence; and the Department of Energy’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, Coast Guard Intelligence, the Federal Bureau of InvestigationFederal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the federal investigative agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. It grew out of a force of special agents organized by Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte in 1908, has used its present name since 1935 and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.Open the full entry, the DEA’s Office of National Security Intelligence, the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Treasury’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis. ODNI staff work at locations including Bethesda, MarylandMarylandMaryland is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States, deeply indented by Chesapeake Bay and bordered by Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, the District of Columbia and West Virginia; its capital is Annapolis and its largest city is Baltimore. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on April 28, 1788, as the seventh state to do so, and had a population of 6,177,224 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry, and Reston and McLean, VirginiaVirginiaVirginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state whose capital is Richmond. It entered the Union on June 25, 1788, as the 10th state, and had a population of 8,631,393 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry.⁠[2][8]

The Senate-confirmed Directors of National Intelligence have been John Negroponte (2005–2007), J. Michael McConnell (2007–2009), Dennis Blair (2009–2010), James Clapper (2010–2017), Daniel Coats (2017–2019), John L. Ratcliffe (May 2020–January 2021), Avril D. Haines (2021–2025), Tulsi Gabbard (2025–2026) and Jay Clayton (from 2026).⁠[4][9][5][7]

Office of the Director of National Intelligence: Official website: https://www.odni.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

X: Public account: https://www.twitter.com/odnigov (opens in a new window).⁠[7]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/odni (opens in a new window).⁠[7]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/odnigov (opens in a new window).⁠[7]