Trump says he may ‘temporarily’ drop bid to make Blanche attorney general

President says he has no objection to pulling his former lawyer’s name until dissenting Republicans are out of office

Donald Trump said on Thursday he may “temporarily” pull the nomination of Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general, but would keep him in the role in an acting capacity until two Republican senators objecting to his confirmation leave office next year – an extraordinary escalation of an intra-party fight over an agreement to create a $1.8bn slush fund and give the president tax immunity.

Two Republican senators – John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina – have refused to back Blanche’s nomination until they receive written confirmation from the justice department that it is not moving forward with a widely criticized agreement creating a $1.8bn fund to compensate people claiming they were targets of political weaponization and granting the president, his family and business entities broad immunity from past tax investigations.

Blanche has already said publicly that the payout fund to compensate victims of so-called government weaponization is not moving forward amid bipartisan backlash. But Cornyn and Tillis had sought assurances in writing, something Blanche has refused to do. Cornyn also sought to clarify the terms of the tax immunity portion of the agreement.

The Senate judiciary committee canceled a vote on Blanche’s confirmation scheduled for Thursday when it became clear he did not have the votes to advance. The two senators – who are both leaving Congress in January – appeared to be negotiating language with the justice department on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Trump blasted Cornyn and Tillis and vowed that he would instead keep Blanche, the president’s former personal lawyer, as the acting attorney general – a role he has held since April, when Pam Bondi resigned. Federal law allows the deputy attorney general – Blanche’s role under Bondi – to serve indefinitely as the acting attorney general until a successor is confirmed.

“John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to Endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this Great Nominee, who will remain, in any event, as Acting.

“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,” Trump posted.

Cornyn, who lost his re-election bid to a Trump-endorsed rival, responded by saying: “POTUS is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis.”

Tillis, who is not seeking re-election after repeated clashes with Trump, told reporters on Capitol Hill: “It makes no sense to me. This is not popular.”

“The president’s not winning on this issue,” he continued. “It is killing some of our candidates because they can’t explain it. And now it looks like they weren’t being honest when they said it was inoperative.”

Earlier on Thursday, both Cornyn and Tillis had expressed a willingness to vote for Blanche.

“If this were just between me and Todd Blanche, we would have worked this out, but, apparently, he’s getting some pushback from higher-ups at the White House. I don’t know who, but it doesn’t need to be this hard,” Cornyn said on Capitol Hill.

The agreement was reached as part of a settlement in a lawsuit Trump filed against the IRS over the unauthorized leak of his tax returns. A federal judge who oversaw the lawsuit blasted the arrangement, noting that the justice department did not make a good faith effort to defend the government and that it appeared to be a collusive effort to engineer a beneficial result on behalf of the president.

Blanche needs the vote of every Republican on the Senate judiciary committee, including Cornyn and Tillis, to advance his nomination to land the role on a permanent basis.