Trump threatens to pull Todd Blanche nomination

Donald Trump said he may withdraw Todd Blanche’s nomination to be US attorney general after two Republican senators stalled a planned confirmation vote, according to The Independent and the Guardian’s US live coverage. The Senate judiciary committee vote was scrapped after John Cornyn and Thom Tillis demanded written assurances about a proposed “Anti-Weaponization Fund” linked to a settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.

The episode compresses several Washington dynamics into a single personnel fight: the Senate’s leverage over executive appointments, the White House’s use of acting officials to bypass delays, and lawmakers trying to pin down the fine print of a deal before it hardens into precedent. According to The Independent, the dispute centers on using tax dollars to compensate people prosecuted during prior Democratic administrations, a plan that has become a litmus test for senators who want limits spelled out rather than implied. Cornyn, the reports say, wants the settlement modified to clarify it covers only existing audits and does not shield the president from scrutiny of future tax filings.

Trump’s response, posted on Truth Social, was less about the policy detail than about time horizons and party discipline. He described Blanche as a “star” and said he would consider pulling the nomination rather than make concessions, while also floating the idea of re-nominating Blanche after Cornyn and Tillis leave office. Both senators are already on the way out: Tillis is not seeking re-election, and Cornyn lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger, according to the Guardian. The implied bargain is that institutional veto points matter only until the calendar removes the veto-holders.

In the meantime, Trump said he would keep Blanche as acting attorney general regardless of Senate action, according to The Independent. That approach shifts the practical question from “Will the Senate confirm?” to “How long can an acting official run the department?”—a familiar pattern in an administration that has repeatedly treated confirmation as optional when it is inconvenient.

The immediate trigger was a committee vote that did not happen. The longer-running issue is that the Justice Department’s top job is being negotiated through a tax settlement’s side terms, in writing, between senators and a president who says he can simply wait them out.