WASHINGTON — President Trump said he plans to nominate acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to permanently lead the Justice Department, signaling strong backing for his former criminal defense lawyer as he navigates the Senate confirmation process.
Trump shared the plan during a private dinner at the White House on Wednesday night, telling guests he would direct staff to start the nomination process the following day. He expressed confidence that the Senate would move fast to confirm Blanche. White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino shared video of the president’s remarks on social media.
“President Trump has a great relationship with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and is very pleased with the job he’s doing so far,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement Wednesday evening. She described Blanche as an “American patriot who fearlessly fought against the Democrats’ unprecedented lawfare campaign on behalf of President Trump.”
Blanche assumed the department’s top job on a temporary basis in April after the ouster of former acting Attorney General Pam Bondi. In the months since, he has taken a series of steps to align the agency with the administration’s conservative priorities. He has urged federal prosecutors to speed up investigations into Trump’s favored targets, moved to roll back gun and drug enforcement policies, and shifted the department’s focus to benefit the president’s political allies while targeting his critics.
Those moves helped placate hard-right skeptics within the Republican Party, but Blanche recently faced a severe test of his political standing. He championed a proposed $1.8 billion fund intended to compensate Trump followers and allies who claimed they suffered political persecution under previous administrations. The plan drew immediate skepticism from lawmakers across the aisle, with many conservatives worrying the money could end up rewarding individuals who assaulted police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Senate Republicans confronted Blanche about the fund during a contentious GOP conference meeting last month. With lawmakers threatening to withhold support, Blanche announced on Tuesday that he was abandoning the compensation fund plan. The proposal had also threatened to derail an unrelated immigration-enforcement bill that GOP leadership sought to advance.
Despite the internal party friction over the fund, Trump remained publicly supportive of his acting attorney general. The president praised Blanche as “doing a very good job” leading the department, even as he acknowledged he “loved the idea” behind the now-scrapped compensation fund.
Blanche will now face the standard Senate confirmation process, where he will need to secure the support of the very senators who recently pressured him to kill the $1.8 billion initiative. His nomination marks a clear effort by the White House to lock in a loyal Justice Department head tasked with carrying out the president’s law enforcement agenda.