Trump: ‘I don’t really blame’ Cornyn for holding up Blanche confirmation

Administration Trump: ‘I don’t really blame’ Cornyn for holding up Blanche confirmation Comments: by Mallory Wilson - 07/31/26 1:46 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Mallory Wilson - 07/31/26 1:46 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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President Trump said Friday that he doesn’t blame Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) for blocking the nomination of Todd Blanche as attorney general because he’s doing it as retaliation for Trump supporting his GOP primary opponent.

“This is being done by a senator, and I don’t really blame him to be honest with you. I endorsed his opponent,” Trump said during his Cabinet meeting at Camp David in Maryland. “The man that lost, the man that I didn’t endorse, has become very angry, and that’s OK.”

“I mean, I understand that,” he continued. “I probably would do the same thing. You want to know the truth: I think I’d do the same thing.”

Cornyn, along with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), has been openly against Blanche’s nomination to serve full time as the nation’s top prosecutor. Both senators want confirmation from the Justice Department that the proposed $1.776 “anti-weaponization” fund is dead, and that Trump and his family cannot be exempt from tax audits.

“I think I am prepared to vote no, but I do think I owe it to my constituents and to Mr. Blanche to try to negotiate in good faith,” the Texas Republican told reporters Thursday. “And that’s what we’ve been doing. And so, we’ll see where things are this morning and see where we go from here.”

Trump said Thursday that he considers the fund, which would be used to give people who believe they were wrongfully targeted by the government money to settle claims, to be “dead.”

“Well it is dead, but you know, I wish it weren’t,” he added.

A meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote on advancing Blanche’s nomination was also canceled Thursday.

Cornyn lost his primary in May to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), who has Trump’s support, and will be leaving his seat in January.

The Lone Star State senator also pushed back on the president’s comments that he’s stonewalling the nomination because of hard feelings.

“I voted with him 99.3 percent of the time. That has nothing to do with it,” Cornyn said Thursday. “This is about making sure that even if you’re the president of the United States, you don’t get favorable terms from the government in a settlement of a lawsuit that ordinary citizens would not get, like protection from audits by the IRS into the foreseeable future.”

Trump said Friday that the senator, now in his fourth term, thought Blanche was “phenomenal until he lost.”

“He’s become a very angry person, and I understand,” the president added.

Helen Huiskes contributed to this report.