Trump Threatens to Shelve Blanche's AG Nomination Rather Than Meet Cornyn and Tillis Demands

Trump Says He'll Wait Out Two Senators He Refused to Endorse

Since the Senate Judiciary Committee's vote on Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination got canceled Wednesday, President Trump has raised the stakes rather than cut a deal. He's now floating pulling Blanche's nomination altogether and just waiting for two Republican senators to leave office in January.

"John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to Endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this Great Nominee," Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Times. "I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd's name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office."

That's a real threat with real math behind it. Blanche needs support from every Republican on the Judiciary Committee to advance, and Cornyn and Tillis are both withholding it.

What Cornyn and Tillis Actually Want

The dispute traces back to a settlement resolving Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, an agency that sits inside his own administration. Part of that settlement created a $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund," plus tax-audit immunity provisions covering Trump, his sons, and a related business.

Cornyn and Tillis say they'll vote to advance Blanche only if the Justice Department puts in writing that it has fully abandoned the fund and narrowed the audit-immunity language. Blanche submitted a written proposal Wednesday intended to, in his words, "put the fund to bed," according to Ground News. As of Thursday, that hadn't been enough to move either senator.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley had set a 4 p.m. deadline Wednesday to decide whether to scrap that day's vote. He did. Some Republicans on the committee also still have concerns about Blanche's past testimony regarding people who assaulted police officers on January 6, 2021, adding another layer to an already crowded fight.

The Political Math Cuts Both Ways

Cornyn lost his Senate primary to a Trump-backed, further-right challenger. Tillis is retiring after Trump declined to back him. Both men are, in the plainest sense, lame ducks with nothing left to lose politically, at least in terms of a future Trump endorsement.

Cornyn had predicted, after losing his primary, that his remaining time in the Senate could be "a pretty bumpy ride" for the president, according to Political Wire. Both men appear to be spending whatever leverage they have left.

But waiting them out carries its own risk for Trump. His approval rating sits below 35% in recent polls, according to the Los Angeles Times. Democrats are eyeing the chance to shrink or flip the GOP's 53-seat Senate majority this November, and both Cornyn's Texas seat and Tillis's North Carolina seat are considered in play.

"So waiting until 2027 could be far harder than it is right now," Jessica Taylor, the Senate and governors editor at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, told the Los Angeles Times.

Phil Brest, a former top Democratic staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee who worked through the nominations of Jeff Sessions, Bill Barr, and Merrick Garland, called the situation unusual. "The opposition to such a high-ranking executive branch nomination from within Republican ranks is quite unprecedented," he told the Los Angeles Times.

The Senators' Case

A $1.8 billion fund tied to a settlement of a lawsuit the president filed against an agency in his own executive branch, plus tax-audit immunity for his own sons and businesses, is the kind of arrangement that would draw bipartisan scrutiny under any administration. Cornyn and Tillis are asking for written, binding assurances rather than verbal promises, which is a standard oversight demand.

No charges, investigation, or formal ethics complaint has been filed over the settlement terms as reported in these sources. The dispute remains a negotiation over written assurances, not an allegation of illegality.

Where It Stands

Blanche has been running the Justice Department as acting attorney general since Pam Bondi was fired in April. Real Clear Politics reported that Cornyn and Tillis have effectively stalled the nomination and could block confirmation until September, if it happens at all.

The next concrete marker is whether the Justice Department produces the written assurances Cornyn and Tillis are demanding, and whether Grassley schedules another committee vote once, or if, that happens. Until then, Blanche keeps running DOJ with "acting" still in his title, and Trump has to decide whether pulling the nomination outright is worth the political exposure Taylor and Brest both flagged.