U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to withdraw the nomination of Todd Blanche to be attorney general until after the midterms on Thursday, amid an intra-Republican impasse over the Justice Department’s settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS.
The Senate Judiciary Committee announced on Wednesday that it was delaying a vote on the nomination of Blanche, who has served as acting U.S. attorney general since April, after Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) objected to provisions of the settlement.
The provisions include a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who claim to have suffered from the “weaponization” of government during the Biden administration and a deal to shield Trump and his family from future tax investigations.
“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, who will remain, in any event, as acting,” Trump wrote.
“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,” the president added.
Cornyn lost his primary election in May after Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Tillis announced in 2025 that he would not seek re-election.
It’s not clear that Trump would have an easier time pursuing the nomination after the midterms, with polls suggesting that Democrats may pick up Tillis’s seat and that several other Republican senators are in toss-up elections.
Cornyn hinted after Trump’s announcement about potentially withdrawing Blanche’s nomination that other Republicans take issue with the president’s IRS deal as well.
“POTUS is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis,” Cornyn wrote.
