Trump Revives $1.8 Billion Payout Fund Threat Amid Blanche Confirmation Deadlock

The Trump anti-weaponization fund is back in the political conversation after the president declared on Saturday that he would resurrect the $1.8 billion compensation proposal if senators refuse to confirm his choice for attorney general. The threat reopens a fight that appeared settled two months ago and adds new pressure to a nomination already stuck in committee.

The fund would direct federal money toward supporters of the president who, in his telling, were unjustly targeted by prosecutors. That framing has been the core objection from critics, who describe it as a mechanism for converting taxpayer dollars into rewards for political loyalty.

A Proposal That Was Supposed to Be Dead

The administration walked away from the fund in June following sustained criticism. At the time, abandoning it appeared to remove one of the more contentious elements from a broader package tied to a legal settlement.

That retreat has now been reversed rhetorically, if not yet formally. Reacting to doubts surrounding his nominee, the president posted on social media that Todd Blanche would remain in the acting attorney general role even without Senate approval, and that he intends to press aggressively for legislation establishing the fund. He described Blanche as a voice of reason and said the proposal would immediately return to the table, promising to see it through.

The White House did not respond to requests for clarification on what concrete steps, if any, would follow.

Why Blanche’s Nomination Stalled

Blanche previously served as the president’s defense attorney, a background that has drawn scrutiny of its own. But the current holdup centers on something more specific than his résumé.

Two Republican senators, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, have blocked the nomination from moving forward. Both are departing at the end of their current terms, a circumstance that leaves them less exposed to the usual pressures of intraparty defiance.

Their demand is narrow and documented: they want a written commitment from the White House to shelve a tax provision attached to a settlement Blanche negotiated. That agreement resolved the president’s $10 billion claim against the Internal Revenue Service over the 2019 disclosure of his tax returns.

The Settlement at the Center of It All

The Justice Department unveiled the settlement in May. It contained two significant components.

The first was the compensation fund for aggrieved supporters, the same $1.8 billion pool now under discussion again. The second was a tax provision insulating the president and members of his family from audits covering prior tax years.

In June, Blanche indicated he would drop the compensation piece while preserving the tax protections. That split decision failed to resolve the dispute. The surviving provision has since become the principal obstacle to his confirmation.

Cornyn has stated that he has not received written guarantees on two specific points: that the provision will not extend to future tax liabilities, and that it will not later be broadened to cover additional individuals. Without those assurances in writing, he has declined to advance the nomination.

Cornyn lost his Republican primary earlier this year to Ken Paxton, who carried the president’s endorsement. He had not publicly addressed Saturday’s post, and his office did not immediately respond to inquiries.

Tillis Pushes Back Hard

Tillis, who is retiring, offered a considerably sharper reaction. He characterized the president’s statement as an intention to resurrect what he called a payout pot for punks, either by improperly standing up another questionable fund or by pushing Congress toward a bill he predicted most Senate Republicans would oppose.

Notably, Tillis did not attack the nominee himself. He said he regards Blanche as qualified for the position and described it as unfortunate that the confirmation would fail because of the reversal on the settlement terms.

That distinction matters politically. It frames the standoff as a dispute over policy substance rather than personal fitness, which makes the objection harder to dismiss as obstruction.

The Committee Delay

On Wednesday, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, who chairs the committee weighing the nomination, postponed a scheduled vote. The stated purpose was to give negotiations more room and to build enough support to get the confirmation through.

Grassley’s office had not commented on the latest development.

Postponing a vote is a common tactic when a chairman anticipates falling short. It preserves the nominee from a formal defeat while signaling that the votes are not currently there.

The Underlying Argument

The fund proposal is built on a claim the president has advanced repeatedly: that his supporters, including individuals who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, faced prosecutions that were politically motivated rather than legally warranted. The compensation structure would treat those prosecutions as injuries warranting federal payment.

Opponents view that premise as the entire problem. Establishing a fund on those grounds would require the government to formally endorse the position that its own prosecutions were illegitimate, with public money serving as the acknowledgment.

Where Things Stand

Several outcomes remain plausible. The White House could provide the written assurances Cornyn has requested, clearing the path for a committee vote. Negotiations could collapse, leaving Blanche indefinitely in an acting capacity, which the president has already signaled he is willing to accept. Or the fund could be introduced as standalone legislation, where Tillis predicts it would find little Republican appetite.

What is clear is that the leverage runs in both directions. The president is using the fund as pressure on senators, while the senators are using the nomination as pressure on the administration. With two of the holdouts already headed for the exit, the usual tools for enforcing party discipline have limited reach.