President Trump said he would consider temporarily withdrawing Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination rather than bow to two outgoing Republican senators whose opposition has frozen the confirmation process.

Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday that he has "no objection" to pulling Blanche's name and resubmitting it once Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina leave office, a move that would bypass the two holdouts entirely rather than meet their demands. The Senate Judiciary Committee had already scrapped a planned vote to advance the nomination after announcing the delay late Wednesday, CBS News reported.

The standoff centers on a pair of demands from Cornyn and Tillis. Both want the Justice Department to put in writing that a controversial "anti-weaponization fund", worth nearly $1.776 billion, created as part of a settlement tied to Trump's personal IRS lawsuit, will not be revived. They also want changes to provisions in that settlement that they say would grant Trump immunity from future tax audits that ordinary taxpayers would not enjoy.

Blanche, who is already serving as acting attorney general, met with both senators late Thursday afternoon at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The meeting lasted about 45 minutes, and a source familiar with the session said the parties were "working collaboratively" toward a resolution.

But the public posture from both sides suggested collaboration had its limits.

Cornyn vows he won't cave to White House pressure

Trump's Truth Social post did not hold back about the two senators or their standing with him. He called Blanche "a STAR" and said both Cornyn and Tillis were men "I refused to Endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action." He added that Blanche "will remain, in any event, as Acting."

Cornyn fired back on X within hours. He wrote that the president "is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis", a pointed suggestion that other Republican senators share their reservations but have stayed quiet.

In an interview with CBS News, Cornyn laid out his position plainly:

"We want to make sure that it remains dead, and that the president isn't given any immunity from future audits that the ordinary taxpayer would not enjoy."

He also questioned the wisdom of Trump's wait-them-out strategy, noting that the November midterm elections could shrink the Republican majority. Cornyn lost his primary earlier this cycle to Trump-backed Ken Paxton, and Tillis declined to seek reelection. Both leave office in January.

Cornyn told reporters he believed negotiations were close to a deal Wednesday night, after the DOJ sent him an updated offer and he returned a counter-proposal. But he said "higher ups" at the White House pushed back, stalling progress. He did not name the officials involved.

"I don't know whether they think they can wait us out or we'll cave, but I assure you, we won't," Cornyn told the Washington Examiner.

Tillis blames a White House adviser for sabotaging a deal

Tillis struck a somewhat different tone. He described himself as "more optimistic about a resolution" than Cornyn appeared to be, but he pointed a finger at an unnamed White House adviser he accused of giving Trump bad counsel on the matter.

Tillis told Fox News that the dispute was "not Blanche's problem," adding that Blanche "was honest when he answered without hesitation, working with us to end this." He framed the conflict as one between senators who want a straightforward written commitment and someone inside the White House who may want to keep the anti-weaponization fund alive as a future option.

"The only reason why we wouldn't move forward with this language is because that same adviser wants to bring it back to life at some point."

That accusation, that someone in the president's orbit is deliberately blocking a deal to preserve a fund the administration has publicly called dead, is the kind of claim that, if true, would mean the White House is negotiating in bad faith with its own party. Tillis has previously signaled conditional support for Blanche, making his continued holdout a sign that the conditions have not been met.

Cassidy adds a third 'no' to the pile

The math problem for the White House may extend beyond two senators. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, another outgoing Republican, told CBS News that Blanche simply "cannot give commitments that Cornyn and Tillis want", a statement that frames the impasse as structural, not personal.

Asked whether he would vote to confirm Blanche if the question came to the floor that day, Cassidy declined to commit: "I'm not going to answer that because I'm still in the information gathering stage."

Blanche's nomination cannot clear the Judiciary Committee without support from all Republicans on the panel, Just The News reported. That gives any single GOP holdout effective veto power, and right now, there are at least two firm holdouts and a third who won't say yes.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune confirmed the Thursday meeting between Blanche and the two senators but offered no public assessment of where negotiations stand.

Trump's gamble carries its own risks

Trump's proposal to withdraw and resubmit the nomination after Cornyn and Tillis depart is not without complications. If Trump formally pulls the nomination, the Federal Vacancies Reform Act would reset the clock on Blanche's tenure as acting attorney general, potentially allowing him to serve in that capacity only until late February.

Cornyn spotted the risk immediately. "Nobody knows what's going to happen in the November election, and he may have less Republicans to vote on confirmation next year," he told CBS News. "I frankly don't understand why they're trying to escalate the fight."

That warning carries weight. A smaller Republican majority after the midterms would make any confirmation harder, not easier. And the longer the attorney general's office operates under an "acting" designation, the more questions arise about the permanence and authority of DOJ leadership, a concern that has surfaced repeatedly in recent debates over the AG role.

For now, Blanche remains in place as acting attorney general regardless of the nomination fight. Trump made that point explicitly in his Truth Social post, noting that Blanche "will remain, in any event, as Acting." The practical effect is that the DOJ continues to function under Blanche's leadership while the political standoff plays out above him.

The core dispute, whether the anti-weaponization fund is genuinely dead or merely dormant, remains unresolved. Cornyn says Blanche resisted confirming in writing that the fund is finished. Tillis says a White House adviser is blocking the very language that would end the fight. And the White House has not publicly identified who is pushing back or why.

Trump has clashed publicly with Tillis over this nomination before, and the conflict has only sharpened. Tillis brushed off the president's latest threat, telling Fox News: "In this place, nothing's ever as good or as bad as it seems, so we're continuing to negotiate."

When members of the president's own party refuse to confirm his attorney general pick, not over ideology, not over qualifications, but over whether the administration will keep its word on a specific fund, the problem isn't the senators. It's the silence from whoever inside the White House won't put a simple commitment on paper.