Blanche meets GOP holdouts hours after Trump floated benching him until January
WASHINGTON, DC: After Trump on Thursday, July 30, announced that he is contemplating temporarily withdrawing Todd Blanche’s nomination as Attorney General and holding him as acting AG until John Cornyn and Thom Tillis leave office, a meeting was held between GOP holdouts and Blanche.
GOP holdouts like Texas Senator John Cornyn and North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis have refused to back Blanche’s nomination until the Trump administration announces that it will permanently drop the Anti-Weaponization Fund, announced in exchange for a lawsuit settlement between Trump and the IRS.
Todd Blanche met GOP holdouts after Trump move
Sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche held a meeting with Republican Senators only hours after Trump announced his plan to keep Blanche as acting for the next five months and then resubmit his nomination after Cornyn and Tillis leave in early January.
Tillis announced his retirement last year, and Cornyn lost his GOP primary to a Trump-backed challenger.
It marked the first meeting the group has had this week following Cornyn's repeated cancellations of meetings with Blanche. It's not clear where the negotiations stand after the gathering.
Trump floated temporarily withdrawing Blanche's nomination for the permanent AG post because of pushback from two outgoing senators.
Trump links John Cornyn's opposition to primary loss
However, Trump claimed that Cornyn is resisting Blanche’s nomination not because of the Anti-Weaponization Fund bill but because the president refused to endorse him.
In a Friday, July 31, post, Trump insisted Cornyn "never had a problem" with a controversial $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund but was now holding up Blanche's nomination.
Trump makes clear that he still supports the taxpayer-funded insurrectionist slush fund: "I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined! Millions of people agree with me, as was… pic.twitter.com/YeJG5TMrBz
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 31, 2026
The president then pointed to a potentially significant point of friction between them: his decision to back Ken Paxton against Cornyn in Texas' Republican primary, a race Paxton ultimately won.
Trump had endorsed Paxton over Cornyn in the Texas primary, and Paxton went on to defeat Cornyn, showing him the door from the Senate.
Cornyn denies Trump's endorsement influenced his position. Blanche's nomination remains stalled as Cornyn and Sen Thom Tillis demand stronger assurances from the Justice Department.
"Maybe John Cornyn's upset with me because I didn't endorse him," Trump said from the Oval Office earlier this week, questioning why the senator had become a roadblock for Blanche.
On Friday, Trump doubled down on Cornyn, saying that he didn't resist the Anti-Weaponization fund earlier and demanded that Blanche’s nomination be approved immediately.
