RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 4 sourcesCornyn, Tillis lead latest Senate revolt against Trump’s demands
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Todd Blanche’s confirmation as Attorney General was put on hold on Wednesday night after a group of Republican senators announced that the White House had not agreed to their demands surrounding the president’s so-called “slush fund”.
Blanche’s nomination had been set for a full Senate vote on Thursday but was officially delayed on Wednesday evening amid an ongoing battle between disgruntled Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Trump administration.
A committee spokesperson said that the hearing was “postponed as work continues to secure sufficient support in committee to favorably report Attorney General-nominee Todd Blanche, who is highly qualified for the job.”
The top official at the DOJ left the Hill in apparent defeat earlier in the day after meeting with Senate GOP leaders but apparently failing to break a deadlock surrounding his confirmation. Blanche is nominated to take over his role permanently, but several Republican senators are threatening to withhold their votes unless the White House puts it in writing that it will not pursue its plans to implement its desired $1.776 billion “weaponization fund” meant to reward persons prosecuted by the DOJ under Joe Biden.
Sen. John Cornyn, one of the lead holdouts, told reporters as he left a meeting on the Hill that he would not back down in the face of the president’s threats and demands.
“I assume he’s getting some pushback from the president’s lawyers,” Cornyn said of Blanche’s inability to meet the Senate’s demands. Earlier in the day, he’d noted: “We’re trying to help them get to a conclusion here, and they won’t let us. It’s befuddling to me.”
Trump, at a White House event, was asked about Cornyn’s resistance and responded that the Texas senator’s opposition likely stemmed from the president endorsing against him in a primary contest Cornyn went on to lose, costing him his seat this year. The president didn’t offer any suggestion for how he’d overcome the senator’s resistance, but took his first direct shots at the majority leader, suggesting he wasn’t sure Thune was the best man to lead the Senate.
"Maybe John Cornyn is upset with me because I didn't endorse him,” said the president.
“I think that's a convenient excuse for not cooperating with the judiciary committee,” Cornyn responded when asked about the president’s comments by The Independent , calling them untrue.
Tillis, leaving his meeting with Cornyn and Senate president pro tempore Chuck Grassley, stated that no decision had yet been made and that the negotiations could continue right up until the 9:00 a.m. vote scheduled for Thursday morning. Grassley’s office is leading conversations with the White House to break the stalemate, according to lawmakers.
“I've got a pretty good track record on ... not folding here, so they should never assume that about me,” added Tillis.
The uncertainty around Blanche’s nomination is just the latest resistance Donald Trump’s White House has faced in the Senate, a dynamic which is now becoming a pattern. The president has seen his demands and desires go unfulfilled by the Senate on numerous issues as his relationship with the chamber has gotten worse over the course of 2026. Partly due to his sinking approval ratings and the unpopularity of the war with Iran, and partly due to realities in the Senate that Majority Leader John Thune can’t change, Donald Trump has finally hit a wall for the first time under his second presidency.
The chamber has defied him on passage of money for the weaponization fund, which GOP members derided as a “slush fund” to Blanche’s face, as well as money for his planned ballroom at the White House. Meanwhile, Thune has denied his demands to scrap the legislative filibuster to pass a voter ID law and the Pentagon’s desired funding supplemental to pay for the Iran war looks to be similarly stuck in limbo for the time being.
The fervor with which Cornyn and Tillis have resisted Trump over the weaponization fund, however, transcends many other issues and is a sign of the consequences Trump is now paying for burning those bridges permanently. By severing ties and doing damage to their political careers, the president has seemingly created a permanent and sizable bubble of outliers within the normally compliant Senate GOP caucus.
The ultimate fate of Blanche’s nomination could be postponed again on Thursday if senators don’t reach a deal with the White House. But time is ticking down before the August recess, which begins at the end of next week. The chamber will be out for a month, returning with only two months to go before the November midterm elections.
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