{"id":59495,"date":"2026-08-01T05:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T05:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/59495\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T05:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T05:06:17","slug":"trump-says-settlement-fund-is-dead-even-as-he-defends-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/59495\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says settlement fund is ‘dead’ even as he defends it"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Friday that his $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund<\/a> is \u201cdead\u201d while also continuing to defend it, further complicating his administration\u2019s negotiations with two Republican senators who are blocking his attorney general nominee<\/a> in protest. <\/p>\n

Trump told reporters at Camp David on Friday morning that administration officials had \u201cagreed not to have a fund\u201d that compensates his political allies, yet made clear that he disagrees with that decision. <\/p>\n

The comments came hours after an early morning social media post in which Trump said people who had been prosecuted by the Justice Department \u2014 many of them for their involvement in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol<\/a> \u2014 \u201care suffering still, many ruined, and I felt that they should be given compensation for what has been done to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s reluctant declaration that the fund won\u2019t be created came as Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, say they won\u2019t support Todd Blanche\u2019s nomination for attorney general until they see that promise in writing. They have been working for weeks with the White House and Blanche, who is now the acting attorney general, to produce a document to that effect, but both senators have said they aren\u2019t satisfied so far. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe President made it clear today that the so-called Anti Weaponization Fund is still alive, which is exactly why we are attempting to formally end it,\u201d Tillis said after Trump\u2019s initial social media post.<\/p>\n

As negotiations continued late Friday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley rescheduled a committee vote for Blanche that had been postponed earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the committee said Grassley would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess and putting the Tuesday vote on the calendar \u201cgives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President\u2019s nominee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornyn, Tillis want promises in writing<\/p>\n

Blanche said at a hearing two months ago that the anti-weaponization fund would not move forward after Republican senators revolted and held up an immigration funding bill.<\/p>\n

But Tillis, who is retiring<\/a> when his term ends in January, and Cornyn, who lost reelection<\/a> this year after Trump endorsed his primary opponent, said they want to ensure that the White House doesn\u2019t reverse course, especially as Trump continues to argue that a fund is needed.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department has provided the senators with language that says Blanche\u2019s May 18 order establishing the \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund\u201d is \u201crescinded and shall have no force or effect,\u201d according to a document reviewed by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Cornyn and Tillis have said they also want some clarifications on a separate piece of the settlement that would grant Trump and members of his family immunity from tax audits. Cornyn said this week that it was his understanding that the audits could extend to more than 100 different Trump organization subsidiaries into the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cTodd Blanche said it was limited to the parties to the litigation \u2014 and it was retrospective, not prospective,\u201d Cornyn said. \u201cAnd all we\u2019re doing is asking them to put that in writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blanche nomination is delayed in the Senate <\/p>\n

The Judiciary Committee postponed the vote on Blanche\u2019s nomination<\/a> that had been scheduled for Thursday morning after Tillis and Cornyn said they needed more from the administration before they could provide the necessary votes. <\/p>\n

After the meeting was delayed, Trump said in a social media post that he might pull Blanche\u2019s nomination<\/a> and resubmit it after Cornyn and Tillis leave office next year. But the two sides continued to negotiate through Thursday afternoon, when Blanche, Cornyn and Tillis met on Capitol Hill. <\/p>\n

On Friday, a person familiar with the negotiations said talks had been positive but the senators were still awaiting a new offer from the Justice Department. The person requested anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.<\/p>\n

The two senators have repeatedly said the Justice Department seemed interested in reaching an agreement, but the White House wouldn\u2019t budge even to aid the confirmation of Trump\u2019s loyal former personal attorney, who has aggressively pursued the administration\u2019s priorities<\/a> as acting attorney general. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think as far as Blanche and the Department of Justice, we were pretty much on the same page,\u201d Cornyn said Thursday. \u201cBut then when the president got wind of it, he wasn\u2019t willing to go along with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tillis said Blanche \u201chas been forthright, thoughtful and patient\u201d but attributed the holdup to an \u201cincompetent personal adviser\u201d to the president, even as Trump himself continued to advocate for the fund. <\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, Trump legal adviser Boris Epshteyn is being blamed as an obstacle to an agreement that would let Blanche move forward, according to three people who have direct knowledge of the discussions and requested anonymity to discuss them.<\/p>\n

Saying the AP\u2019s \u201csources are wrong,\u201d White House communications director Steven Cheung said \u201canyone trying to assign blame to the President or his team has no earthly idea of what is going on and clearly is trying to deflect from the issue at hand \u2014 Todd Blanche will be an exceptional Attorney General and he should be confirmed immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also on Friday, Trump\u2019s attorneys notified a court it would appeal a judge\u2019s scathing ruling that characterized the settlement of the president\u2019s lawsuit against the IRS as an improper exercise in self-dealing.<\/a> The judge in her order earlier this month referred one of Trump\u2019s attorneys for potential disciplinary action and criticized Blanche\u2019s involvement in the settlement, given his prior representation of Trump.<\/p>\n

Blanche has said he disagrees \u201cwith the judge\u2019s insinuations\u201d about him.<\/p>\n

Settlement fund could have benefited Jan. 6 rioters<\/p>\n

Even as they are usually deferential to Trump, a number of Republican senators have expressed strong objections to the settlement. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe criminals who assaulted police officers and defiled our nation\u2019s Capitol are not \u2018great American patriots\u2019 who are \u2018victims of government abuse,\u2019\u201d Tillis said, echoing Trump\u2019s comments about the rioters who could potentially have received payouts. On his first day back in office, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people who had been charged in the attack. <\/p>\n

Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said Thursday that the majority of Senate Republicans aren\u2019t comfortable with the settlement fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlanche said it\u2019s dead, and he testified that it\u2019s not coming back,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cBut for whatever reason, somebody didn\u2019t want to put it in writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has been updated to correct the year of the Capitol riot. It was 2021, not 2001. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Friday that his $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund is \u201cdead\u201d while also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[31560,248,1790,38,286,50,115,8,10577,290,474,9,67,164,111,472,3740,7,13910,2631,365,481,69],"class_list":["post-59495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-boris-epshteyn","tag-chuck-grassley","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-general-news","tag-government-and-politics","tag-headlines","tag-internal-revenue-service","tag-john-cornyn","tag-john-kennedy","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-protests-and-demonstrations","tag-steven-cheung","tag-thom-tillis","tag-todd-blanche","tag-top-stories","tag-trump-hub","tag-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-united-states-congress","tag-washington-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/117018518253635585","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}