{"id":969740,"date":"2026-07-30T20:28:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T20:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/969740\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T20:28:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T20:28:19","slug":"trump-says-he-may-pull-blanches-nomination-for-attorney-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/969740\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says he may pull Blanche’s nomination for attorney general"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> said Thursday he may pull acting Attorney General Todd Blanche\u2019s nomination<\/a> for the full-time post to avoid conceding to Senate Republicans\u2019 demands over a sweeping tax audit immunity deal benefiting the president and members of his family.<\/p>\n

After failed negotiations forced the delay of a committee vote<\/a> to advance Blanche\u2019s nomination, Trump suggested he was holding firm against pressure from Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis. They have expressed concerns about the controversial settlement of Trump\u2019s lawsuit<\/a> against the Internal Revenue Service, which a judge denounced as an exercise in self-dealing.<\/a><\/p>\n

The senators said the Justice Department seemed interested in reaching an agreement with them, but the White House wouldn\u2019t budge to aid the confirmation of Trump\u2019s loyal former personal attorney, who has aggressively pursued the administration\u2019s priorities<\/a> as acting attorney general. Instead, Trump said in a social media post that he might pull Blanche\u2019s nomination and resubmit it after Cornyn and Tillis leave office next year. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Sen.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, arrives for a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill, Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/p>\n

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, arrives for a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill, Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\"Sen.<\/p>\n

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., arrives for a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill, Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/p>\n

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., arrives for a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill, Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/p>\n

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\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

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: Trump floats pulling Blanche\u2019s nomination for attorney general to avoid conceding to GOP demands\n <\/p>\n

AP correspondent Ed Donahue reports on a snag in the nomination of a Trump administration cabinet appointee.<\/p>\n

Hours after Trump\u2019s post, however, Blanche held a meeting with Cornyn and Tillis and the two sides were back to working collaboratively, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations around Blanche\u2019s confirmation.<\/p>\n

Cornyn and Tillis have said they won\u2019t back Blanche\u2019s nomination without additional assurances in writing about the settlement, which included a deal to drop tax claims against the president and a now-scrapped plan to create a $1.776 billion \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund\u201d<\/a> meant to compensate Trump allies. <\/p>\n

With all Democratic senators opposed, just one Republican holdout on the Senate Judiciary Committee could sink Blanche\u2019s chances for confirmation. And even if Blanche makes it through the Senate Judiciary Committee, it\u2019s unclear if he has enough Republican support to be confirmed by the full chamber. <\/p>\n

Cornyn wrote in a social media post Thursday that the president is \u201cmistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis.\u201d <\/p>\n

While the Justice Department dropped plans for the \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund\u201d<\/a> after bipartisan outrage about the potential of payouts going to violent Jan. 6 rioters<\/a>, officials have said that another piece of the settlement \u2014 granting Trump and members of his family immunity from tax audits \u2014 remains in place. <\/p>\n

Though Blanche has repeatedly insisted that the \u201cAnti-Weaponization fund\u201d is dead, skeptical lawmakers have pushed for a commitment in writing \u2014 especially since Trump has expressed continued support for the idea. But the senators suggested the White House is resisting putting it in writing. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Acting<\/p>\n

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is sworn in as he appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein, File)<\/p>\n

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is sworn in as he appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein, File)<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe president\u2019s getting bad advice. He should listen to Blanche and others who think if it\u2019s dead, it should be rendered completely dead,\u201d Tillis told reporters about the fund. <\/p>\n

Another sticking point was the settlement\u2019s audit immunity provision that said the U.S. government is \u201cforever barred and precluded\u201d from scrutinizing or prosecuting Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization\u2019s current and past tax examinations. Cornyn and Tillis have pressed the administration to modify the agreement to make clear that it covers only existing audits and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings.<\/p>\n

While the majority of Republican senators oppose the settlement, the main pushback to Blanche has come from Cornyn, who lost his seat earlier this year when Trump opposed him in a GOP primary. Trump has also frequently targeted Tillis, who announced last year that he would not run for re-election and has criticized the administration over the pardons of Jan. 6 rioters and other matters. <\/p>\n

Though it would be politically embarrassing for the Trump administration, pulling Blanche\u2019s nomination would likely have little practical impact on the management of the Justice Department. <\/p>\n

Blanche, who took the reins of the department after Pam Bondi\u2019s firing in April, can still lead the agency as either acting attorney general or deputy attorney general, the No. 2 post to which he was confirmed last year. The deputy attorney general, who oversees the day-to-day operations of the law enforcement agency, can perform the duties of the attorney general if that post is vacant.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press reporter Kevin Freking and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Thursday he may pull acting Attorney General Todd Blanche\u2019s nomination for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":969741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[3881,327,12785,84,69,57,47593,139559,25227,521,50,519,11335,80,618,358,16538,95,5028,94,61,322,67,370,326,132,68,93],"class_list":["post-969740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-ap-top-news","tag-congress","tag-dc-wire","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-government-appointments-and-nominations","tag-internal-revenue-service","tag-john-cornyn","tag-nc-state-wire","tag-news","tag-north-carolina","tag-pam-bondi","tag-politics","tag-taxes","tag-texas","tag-thom-tillis","tag-todd-blanche","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-u-s-news","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-house-of-representatives","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-washington-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=969740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/969741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=969740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=969740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=969740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}