WASHINGTON — Todd Blanche’s nomination to become attorney general was dealt a staggering blow Thursday morning when President Donald Trump threatened to withdraw Blanche’s name rather than scale back a lucrative tax immunity deal, as demanded by two Republican senators.

Trump’s threat, posted on social media, followed 24 hours of frenetic and fruitless negotiations among Blanche, the White House and two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whose opposition to some of Trump’s policies led to losses in their primaries earlier this year.

“I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office,” Trump wrote after Cornyn told reporters that the administration had not agreed to put on paper a commitment to place restrictions on the broad immunity negotiated by Blanche and Trump’s personal lawyers to settle a lawsuit the president had filed against the IRS.

Blanche, the president’s former top defense lawyer, can remain as acting attorney general indefinitely. But the fact that some Republicans — perhaps emboldened by Trump’s declining popularity — appear to have derailed, even temporarily, his nominee for a flagship Cabinet post represents a serious blow to his self-image as an undisputed master of Washington.

Trump accused Cornyn and Tillis of a sour-grapes revolt aimed at punishing him for withholding his kingmaker endorsement in their contested Republican primaries.

“John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to Endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this Great Nominee, who will remain, in any event, as Acting,” he wrote.

Cornyn quickly pushed back, suggesting that he and Tillis represented a much larger group of Senate Republicans who had reservations about the implications of the tax deal as well as a plan to create a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who said they were victims of unfair prosecution by the government, potentially including rioters who attacked police officers at the U.S. Capitol.

Hours before Trump posted, Cornyn told reporters that he believed “higher-ups at the White House” were blocking efforts to reach a deal to modify the settlement in Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS.

Cornyn said he had sent a proposal to the Justice Department that included limits on a provision in the settlement protecting Trump from IRS audits, a guarantee he said he needed before voting to advance Blanche’s confirmation.

“I thought we were pretty close to landing the plane last night,” Cornyn said. “But this morning there’s been some more complications.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Glenn Thrush and Michael Gold/Alex Kent
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