Trump further muddies Blanche negotiations, saying he wishes ‘anti-weaponization’ fund weren’t dead

By Kit Maher, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump is further complicating negotiations as White House and Justice Department officials try to unstick Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general, saying Friday that a controversial fund behind the holdup is “dead” but that “I wish it weren’t.”

Key GOP senators — John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina— have indicated they’ll withhold their needed votes to confirm Blanche until they get written assurances that the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund won’t be resurrected, along with certain commitments about tax investigations.

Trump defended the fund at length during a Cabinet meeting Friday, echoing comments posted on Truth Social earlier that day in which he called for Blanche to “be immediately approved” as his permanent pick for for the role. Just a day earlier, the president had said he wouldn’t object to “temporarily withdrawing” Blanche’s nomination until Tillis and Cornyn leave Congress early next year.

Tillis responded on X Friday morning that Trump’s comments were reaffirming why he and Cornyn needed the assurances in writing.

“The President made it clear today that the so-called Anti Weaponization Fund is still alive, which is exactly why we are attempting to formally end it,” Tillis wrote.

Blanche has already said the controversial fund is “dead” and the Justice Department told courts the program was abandoned, but officials have previously declined to put the commitment in writing. The fund, originally established by a settlement agreement between the Internal Revenue Service and Trump’s personal lawyers, would have offered taxpayer money to those who claimed they were victims of weaponization by the federal government — including those involved with the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot.

Cornyn has been adamant that he also wants Blanche to clarify an addendum to that agreement that offers the president and members of his family tax immunity. The senator wants Blanche to explicitly acknowledge that it only applies to past tax investigations against the president and those listed in the lawsuit that was settled.

The demands have left Blanche in a difficult place since putting limits on the tax addendum could anger the president.

At the Cabinet meeting, Trump repeated his claims that Cornyn is “very angry” that he snubbed him in the Texas primary and endorsed his challenger, Ken Paxton — an assertion the GOP senator has denied.

“I don’t blame him, to be honest with you,” Trump said. “The man that lost, the man that I didn’t endorse, has become very angry, and that’s okay. But I understand that. I probably would do the same thing.”

In both the Truth Social post and the meeting, the president again insisted that the fund would not have benefitted him personally. Rather, he said it was intended for those “whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed” by the Biden administration.

“I felt that they should be given compensation for what has been done to them,” Trump said.

While he stopped short of calling for a renewal of the fund, Trump in the post defended its imposition and claimed that Cornyn “never had a problem” with it. The Texas Republican has said he’s not looking for another attorney general nominee but wants the assurances in writing that he asked for.

“I think the DOJ needs a Senate-confirmed attorney general, and Todd Blanche is probably about as good as we’re going to get, and so I just think they need to do what Todd Blanche swore that this deal meant. They need to put that in writing so it’s enforceable. And so far, they have been unwilling to do that,” Cornyn said on Thursday.

As Trump was muddying the issue from the White House, his private attorneys were escalating the legal battle over their and the Justice Department’s tactics in the case that produced the controversial IRS settlement in question.

On Friday, they filed an appeal of a ruling from a judge who ordered sanctions against them for their conduct in the litigation. The ruling from Judge Kathleen Williams — who had been assigned Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS before it was dismissed with the settlement — came at the request of retired judges, who had argued that the parties’ behavior in the litigation amounted to sanctionable conduct. Williams agreed, referring one Trump attorney for disciplinary proceedings and barring another from making appearances in her court district for the next year.

Now, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals will review her ruling, which said that Trump sought to “manipulate the judicial process” in bringing the case.

This story has been updated with additional information and developments.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.