Donald Trump has admitted his high-profile pick for attorney general may not have enough support from his own party and floated withdrawing the nomination until he gets enough votes.
In a striking concession on Thursday, the president acknowledged Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation had run into serious trouble after several Republican senators had yet to back him.
Central to the standoff is the controversial $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” slush fund that Blanche helped create for Trump earlier this year.
Two holdout Republicans, Thom Tillis and John Cornyn, both wanted written assurances that the fund was officially dead.
They also wanted more clarity, in writing, about the extraordinary deal that gave Trump and his family sweeping protections from future IRS audits.
But rather than try to win them over, Trump suggested he may just keep Blanche in an acting role and renominate him to lead the Justice Department once Tillis and Cornyn left the Senate after this year’s midterm elections.
“Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it! He has the potential to go down as one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time. However, 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,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
“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,” he added.
Blanche used to be Trump’s personal attorney and represented him in the so-called “hush money” trial that led to the president being criminally convicted of falsifying business documents to cover up a sex scandal with porn star Stormy Daniels.
But his close relationship with Trump has sparked questions about his ability to lead the department independently, particularly after he admitted during his confirmation hearings that the White House was essentially running things.
He has also faced mounting controversy over his stewardship of the Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. With his nomination hanging in the balance, posters have been plastered around Washington DC reminding passers-by of the leading role he played.
Blanche was central to the sweetheart deal that resulted in Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell being transferred to a cushy prison camp in Texas after he interviewed her last year in a bid to neutralize the scandal.
Survivors who met with him this week accused Blanche of treating them dismissively, with several saying he cut them off and showed little interest in hearing their concerns.
“I mean, he actually said the words ‘get to the point’ to us,” said Dani Bensky, who said she was abused by Epstein starting at the age of 17.
“Survivors who have been waiting to meet with him for nine months, eight months, we’ve been asking for meetings—and he very much said, ‘can you get to the point already?’”
In a sign that Blanche clearly did not have the numbers, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday night announced that it would postpone a planned vote that was meant to take place today.
“Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure,” a spokesman for Grassley said in a statement.
Talks with Cornyn and Tillis continued into Thursday, but both Senators appeared to suggest it was one of Trump’s aides, and not Blanche himself, who was causing the impasse to continue.
“I think this were just between me and and Todd Blanch, we would have worked this out. But apparently, he’s getting some pushback from higher-ups at the White House,” Cornyn told reporters on Capitol Hill.
“We have someone else in the way,” added Tillis, without naming names. “I don’t believe it’s the president and hopefully we can resolve it.”
