Senator John Cornyn has fired back at President Donald Trump after Trump threatened to pull Todd Blanche’s Attorney General nomination and resubmit it once two blocking senators leave office.
Trump posted on Truth Social this week, declaring his full support for Blanche and attacking the two Republican senators standing in the way of confirmation.
“Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it!” Trump wrote, adding that Blanche “has the potential to go down as one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time.”
Trump specifically named Cornyn and Tillis as the senators obstructing the nomination, describing them as politicians whose careers he has effectively ended by refusing to endorse them.
Both Cornyn and Tillis sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee and have made clear they will not advance Blanche’s nomination without a written commitment that the Anti-Weaponization Fund is dead.
Blanche has repeatedly stated verbally that the fund is finished, but has so far declined to put that assurance in writing, leaving the confirmation process in a standoff.
The Judiciary Committee vote on the Blanche nomination was postponed earlier this week, reflecting the ongoing impasse between the White House and the two Republican holdouts.
Trump floated the idea of temporarily withdrawing Blanche’s nomination entirely and then resubmitting it once the two lame duck senators have departed and a new Congress is seated.
Cornyn responded quickly and sharply, posting on X that “POTUS is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis.”
The senator suggested the concerns over the nomination run broader than just two dissenters, implying the White House could face a more complicated confirmation landscape than it expects.
When pressed on Trump’s threat to pull and resubmit the nomination, Cornyn was openly defiant and unbothered by the prospect of waiting out the clock.
“Hey, 158 days, they can try it again,” Cornyn said. “Roll the dice on what the Senate confirmation process looks like next year.”
The response signals that Cornyn does not view Trump’s threat as a meaningful form of leverage, and may even welcome the gamble of a future confirmation fight.
The episode highlights the growing friction within the Republican Party as Trump pushes to install loyalists in key cabinet positions while facing resistance from within his own caucus.