President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to temporarily withdraw Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation — and wait until two Republican senators blocking the nomination have left office.
The extraordinary threat marks a sharp escalation in tensions between the White House and Senate Republicans over control of the Justice Department, highlighting deep divisions within the party over how aggressively to pursue investigations into the previous administration. The standoff has effectively stalled one of Trump’s most critical Cabinet confirmations and exposed vulnerabilities in the president’s relationship with his own party’s Senate caucus.
The president slammed Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) for refusing to vote for Blanche, saying he’d pull the nomination and resubmit it after both senators depart.
Blanche would remain as acting attorney general during the delay.
Such a maneuver would be highly unusual but legally permissible under federal vacancies statutes, which allow acting officials to serve in their roles for extended periods under certain conditions. The strategy would effectively bypass the Senate’s traditional advice-and-consent role while keeping Trump’s preferred nominee in place to run the nation’s top law enforcement agency without full confirmation.
“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.”
Cornyn and Tillis have refused to vote for Trump’s DOJ pick until their concerns are addressed. Sources told The Daily Wire the DOJ submitted a written response Thursday evening to both senators. But Trump’s Truth Social post indicated the response wasn’t good enough — and that he’d find another way around the holdouts.
The back-and-forth negotiations have dragged on for weeks, with the senators insisting on binding commitments from the Justice Department about how it will conduct its operations. Their resistance represents one of the few instances where Republican lawmakers have been willing to publicly challenge Trump’s personnel choices, making the confrontation a significant test of executive power versus legislative prerogatives.
The president described Blanche as a “star” with the “potential to go down as one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time.”
Blanche, who previously served as one of Trump’s personal attorneys and successfully defended him in multiple legal proceedings, has been a trusted legal advisor to the president for years. His nomination was widely seen as a reward for that loyalty and an indication that Trump wanted someone at the helm of DOJ who fully understood and supported his vision for reforming the department.
Trump also reminded patriots that both senators voted to confirm Merrick Garland — the attorney general who weaponized the DOJ against conservatives.
“Remember, both Cornyn and Tillis voted for Merrick Garland, and others, too numerous to mention,” Trump said.
The president added that he had destroyed their political careers.
The harsh rhetoric suggests Trump views the confirmation battle as not merely a policy disagreement but a personal betrayal by senators he believes should be loyal allies. By invoking their votes for Garland, Trump is attempting to paint the senators as inconsistent and hypocritical, willing to confirm Democratic nominees while blocking his own choices.
Cornyn threatened to derail Blanche’s nomination over the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund — a DOJ plan to investigate civil-rights abuses by federal agencies during the Biden administration.
The controversial fund was designed to provide resources for investigating allegations that the previous administration had improperly targeted political opponents, conservative organizations, and others through prosecutorial and regulatory actions. Critics argued it would politicize the Justice Department and create a retaliatory atmosphere, while supporters maintained it was necessary to hold accountable those who had abused their power.
The DOJ abandoned the fund after Republican pushback. On Wednesday, Cornyn told Punchbowl News the DOJ’s written proposal still didn’t satisfy his demands.
“They know what they need to do, but they simply refuse to do it,” Cornyn said. He cancelled a scheduled meeting with Blanche.
After a Clinton-appointed judge issued a temporary restraining order on the Anti-Weaponization Fund in May, Justice Department officials dropped the matter entirely.
“We are not moving forward with the fund, period,” Blanche testified at the time.
Despite Blanche’s public testimony abandoning the fund, Cornyn and Tillis have continued to demand additional assurances, suggesting they want more comprehensive guarantees about DOJ independence and operations beyond just this single issue. The senators appear concerned about establishing precedents for how the Justice Department will function throughout Trump’s term.
Trump criticized the Republican senators who opposed the fund, telling the Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese from the Oval Office that some of them “got very weak knees.”
“The Republican senators, some of them, got very weak knees. They didn’t have the stomach for the fight.”
Cornyn is up for reelection in 2026. Tillis faces voters in 2026 as well. Trump’s threat to wait them out puts both senators on notice — and signals the president isn’t backing down.
The timing creates maximum political pressure on both senators, who must now weigh whether to continue their opposition knowing it could trigger primary challenges from Trump-backed candidates or provoke sustained attacks from the president that could damage their standing with Republican voters. The confrontation has transformed what is typically a procedural confirmation process into a high-stakes political showdown with implications for the balance of power within the Republican Party.
