{"id":23934,"date":"2026-08-01T05:12:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=23934"},"modified":"2026-08-01T05:12:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:12:42","slug":"trumps-comments-reignite-blanche-confirmation-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=23934","title":{"rendered":"Trump&#039;s comments reignite Blanche confirmation fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/eLwEtX8_HLoa4frd_g_B7wsODHs=\/0x0:3659x2058\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/31\/1785529589855.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\">Trump<\/a> administration is still pushing lawmakers to confirm acting Attorney General <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/15\/todd-blanche-federal-agents-polling-places-voters-ice\" target=\"_blank\">Todd Blanche<\/a>, even as President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\">Trump<\/a> defends the &#8220;anti-weaponization&#8221; fund holding Blanche&#8217;s confirmation hostage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The big picture:<\/strong> The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/13\/judge-trump-irs-settlement-anti-weaponization-fund\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;anti-weaponization&#8221; fund<\/a> has been the red line for Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). The lawmakers have refused to vote for Blanche until the DOJ put into writing that aspects of the deal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/01\/trump-weaponization-fund-drop\" target=\"_blank\">aren&#8217;t moving forward<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/atrupar\/status\/2083225390777024963\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> Friday the fund is dead, but he didn&#8217;t seem happy about it.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I wish it weren&#8217;t [dead],&#8221; Trump said of the fund. He added that he wanted to see people who &#8220;were horribly treated, horribly abused&#8221; by the government be compensated. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Friction point: <\/strong>Tillis seemed to take issue with Trump defending the fund on Truth Social, retweeting a screenshot of the president&#8217;s words on Friday and <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SenThomTillis\/status\/2083210673819881724\" target=\"_blank\">writing<\/a> that Trump had &#8220;made it clear&#8221; that the fund &#8220;is still alive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;I will continue working in good faith to put an end [to] this legal and political albatross and prevent any potential misallocation of taxpayer dollars,&#8221; Tillis wrote, adding that Blanche had been forthright in discussions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Earlier Friday, <\/strong>the president went <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/%40realDonaldTrump\/posts\/117014253232654593\" target=\"_blank\">after<\/a> Cornyn, and said he would &#8220;always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cornyn also re-shared a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/StevenJDuffield\/status\/2083196822328090746\" target=\"_blank\">post<\/a> Friday that said it &#8220;does not sound like citizen Trump has agreed to end the Fund.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Catch up quick: <\/strong>The president on Thursday floated withdrawing Blanche&#8217;s name and keeping him on in an acting capacity until Cornyn and Tillis leave the Senate this January.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>But on Friday, Trump said Blanche should be &#8220;immediately approved,&#8221; a call seconded by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SecRollins\/status\/2083265983930826875\" target=\"_blank\">members<\/a> of his administration. <\/li>\n<li>Secretary of State Marco Rubio <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SecRubio\/status\/2083257792656199742\" target=\"_blank\">wrote<\/a> in a Friday post that the Senate shouldn&#8217;t go on recess until Blanche is confirmed.<\/li>\n<li>The White House also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/releases\/2026\/07\/icymi-confirm-todd-blanche-as-attorney-general\/\" target=\"_blank\">released<\/a> a demand to confirm Blanche &#8220;without delay&#8221; on its website Friday with a list of endorsements from law enforcement groups, former DOJ officials and members of Congress, among others.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What we&#8217;re watching: <\/strong>While the battle over Blanche plays out in Washington, attorneys for the president <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.flsd.706172\/gov.uscourts.flsd.706172.113.0_2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> Friday that they&#8217;d appeal a Miami-based federal judge&#8217;s order that blasted the extraordinary deal to drop the IRS suit against his own government.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.flsd.706172\/gov.uscourts.flsd.706172.106.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">wrote<\/a> in her scathing order earlier this month that the lawsuit had been a &#8220;bad faith&#8221; means to an end and blocked the parties from referring to the settlement in any official proceedings\u00a0\u2014 but Trump is still fighting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Go deeper: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/30\/todd-blanche-nomination-issues-trump\" target=\"_blank\">The major controversies stalling Todd Blanche&#8217;s attorney general nomination<\/a><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Trump administration is still pushing lawmakers to confirm acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, even as President Trump defends the &#8220;anti-weaponization&#8221; fund holding Blanche&#8217;s confirmation hostage. The big picture: The &#8220;anti-weaponization&#8221; fund has been the red line for Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). The lawmakers have refused to vote for Blanche until&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/eLwEtX8_HLoa4frd_g_B7wsODHs=\/0x0:3659x2058\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/31\/1785529589855.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}