---
title: "Trump Says He May Pull Blanche's Attorney General Nomination Until Two Republicans Leave the Senate"
description: "Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are withholding support for Todd Blanche until the Justice Department puts in writing that a fund created by Trump's IRS settlement is dead. The president says he would rather wait out both senators, whose terms end in January."
category: "Politics"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/politics
author: "Gabriela Soto"
published: 2026-07-30T22:53:10.000Z
updated: 2026-07-30T22:53:10.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/trump-says-he-may-pull-blanche-s-attorney-general-nomination-until-two-republica
tags: ["todd-blanche", "justice-department", "senate", "confirmation", "irs"]
---
# Trump Says He May Pull Blanche's Attorney General Nomination Until Two Republicans Leave the Senate

Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are withholding support for Todd Blanche until the Justice Department puts in writing that a fund created by Trump's IRS settlement is dead. The president says he would rather wait out both senators, whose terms end in January.

President Trump said Thursday that he is open to temporarily withdrawing Todd
Blanche's nomination to be attorney general, after two Republican senators
declined to advance it.

"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,"
[Trump wrote](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-todd-blanche-nomination-attorney-general-cornyn-tillis/),
referring to Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Both
senators' current terms end in January.

The maneuver would change little in practice at the Justice Department. Blanche is
already serving as acting attorney general, a role that does not require Senate
confirmation, and he would continue in it whether or not the nomination is pending.

## What the senators are asking for

The objection is narrow and specific. It concerns the settlement Trump reached
with the Internal Revenue Service over his own tax audits, which created a fund of
roughly $1.776 billion to pay people who said the agency had been used against
them, and which gave Trump and his family immunity from being audited on returns
filed before the settlement.

Cornyn says Blanche told the Judiciary Committee in testimony that the fund was
dead, and he wants that commitment in writing.
[The Justice Department has not put it in writing](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/30/texas-trump-cornyn-blanche-attorney-general-nomination/),
and Cornyn has treated that refusal as significant in itself. Tillis has withheld
support on the same grounds.

Neither senator has said he opposes Blanche's confirmation outright. Both have
framed their position as a hold pending documentation rather than a rejection of
the nominee.

## The nominee

Blanche spent more than fifteen years as a federal prosecutor, most of it in the
U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where he
[supervised the violent crimes unit](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-to-know-about-todd-blanche-trumps-pick-for-acting-attorney-general)
before moving into white-collar defense work in private practice. He represented
Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, and in 2023 became lead counsel
on Trump's own criminal defense team. He joined the administration as deputy
attorney general and moved up to the acting role earlier this year.

## What happens next

The nomination has not been advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The
question is whether the department produces the written assurance the two senators
have asked for, or whether the White House prefers to wait until January, when the
Senate's composition changes and the two holds go with it.

The choice Trump has described is not a procedural formality. Withdrawing and
resubmitting a nomination to outlast two senators of his own party is an unusual
public statement about where the disagreement actually sits, and it leaves the
Justice Department led on an acting basis for months longer.

## Sources

- [Trump says he may pull Todd Blanche's nomination until Cornyn and Tillis leave office](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-todd-blanche-nomination-attorney-general-cornyn-tillis/)
- [Trump suggests pulling AG nomination amid Cornyn concerns](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/30/texas-trump-cornyn-blanche-attorney-general-nomination/)
- [The Latest: Trump says he may pull Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination for now](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/07/30/trump-iran-blanche-disapproval/2e0556e8-8c13-11f1-8912-d71e69d679d7_story.html)
- [What to know about Todd Blanche](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-to-know-about-todd-blanche-trumps-pick-for-acting-attorney-general)