Blanche rescinds fund for Trump supporters after GOP senators threaten to block his AG bid
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- Todd Blanche issued a formal order Sunday terminating Trump's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund" to compensate political allies, after weeks of negotiations with two GOP senators blocking his attorney general nomination.
- Texas Sen. John Cornyn confirmed the deal ahead of Tuesday's Judiciary Committee vote; North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis had no immediate comment — both are lame ducks, with Cornyn losing his primary and Tillis retiring in January.
- Blanche's order clarifies that the tax audit immunity granted Trump and his family in the IRS settlement applies only retroactively to claims open at the time of settlement, not future tax filings.
- Trump has continued to publicly back the fund, saying on Sunday that Jan. 6 defendants "had their lives destroyed" and that payments "would be a reimbursement for the pain that they suffered."
- Trump threatened after Thursday's vote was delayed that he might pull Blanche's nomination and resubmit it after Cornyn and Tillis leave office next year.
- Trump's attorneys notified a court Friday they would appeal a judge's scathing ruling that characterized the IRS settlement as improper self-dealing and referred one Trump attorney for potential disciplinary action.
- Blanche served as Trump's defense lawyer in his criminal cases before joining DOJ as deputy attorney general, and was elevated to acting AG after Trump fired Pam Bondi in April over her failure to prosecute his political enemies.
Why it matters: The deal clears Blanche's path to a permanent AG post but only formalizes a fund that was already effectively dead in practice. Trump publicly insists he still wants it and threatened to revive it if Blanche wasn't confirmed — meaning the political pressure to resurrect compensation for Jan. 6 defendants and Trump allies remains live even as the legal mechanism is now terminated in writing.
