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In 2017, President Trump named Clayton chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the body that polices America’s financial markets. He was not, at that point, a partisan figure. Registered as an independent, he had over the years donated to the campaigns of Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush, and the Senate confirmed him comfortably by 61 votes to 37, with support from both parties. As chairman from 2017 to 2020, he concentrated on the ordinary retail investor, pushed through dozens of rule changes, wrestled with the rise of cryptocurrencies, and guided the markets through the shock of the pandemic. He left with a reputation as a competent, centrist technocrat.