Republican Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) have said they will not vote to confirm President Trump’s Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche unless Blanche and the DOJ confirm that Trump’s previously proposed $1.8 billion legal defense fund for victims of DOJ “weaponization” is permanently dead.
[NOTE: The fund was part of a controversial legal settlement stemming from a Trump lawsuit against the IRS for its alleged role in allowing information from his tax returns to be leaked. Blanche, currently the Acting AG, later said the weaponization fund would not be established.]
Trump reacted to the objections of Cornyn and Tillis on social media, writing that he has “no objection to temporarily withdrawing” Blanche’s nomination, and simply renominating Blanche “after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office.”
POTUS is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis https://t.co/fKgD1qwF7x
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) July 30, 2026
Tillis is not running for re-election and Cornyn lost the GOP primary to Trump-endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Cornyn responded to the President’s post by writing: “POTUS is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis.”
As seen below, Tillis told CNN on Thursday: “The president’s getting bad advice. He should listen to Blanche and others who think if it’s dead, it should be rendered completely dead.” He added: “That same adviser wants to bring it back to life at some point.”
[Note: Tillis has openly criticized several Trump officials in the past, including acting DNI Bill Pulte and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, whom he has characterized as “out of his depth.”]
New — Thom Tillis reacts to Trump threatening to withdraw Todd Blanche and renominate him after Tillis and Cornyn are gone in January.
“The president’s getting bad advice. He should listen to Blanche and others who think if it’s dead, it should be rendered completely dead,” he… pic.twitter.com/101j2bjR34
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 30, 2026