Todd Blanche’s nomination to become attorney general was dealt a staggering blow Thursday morning when President Trump threatened to withdraw Mr. Blanche’s name rather than scale back a lucrative tax immunity deal, as demanded by two Republican senators.
Mr. Trump’s threat, posted on social media, followed 24 hours of frenetic and fruitless negotiations among Mr. Blanche, the White House and two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who are not returning to Congress next 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,” Mr. Trump wrote after Mr. Cornyn told reporters that the administration had not agreed to put on paper a commitment to place restrictions on the broad immunity negotiated by Mr. Blanche and Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers to settle a lawsuit the president had filed against the I.R.S.
Mr. Blanche, the president’s former top defense lawyer, can remain as acting attorney general indefinitely. But the fact that some Republicans — perhaps emboldened by Mr. 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.
Mr. Trump accused Mr. Cornyn and Mr. 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.
Mr. Cornyn quickly pushed back, suggesting that he and Mr. 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 Mr. Trump posted, Mr. Cornyn told reporters that he believed “higher-ups at the White House” were blocking efforts to reach a deal to modify the settlement in Mr. Trump’s lawsuit against the I.R.S.
Mr. Cornyn said he had sent a proposal to the Justice Department that included limits on a provision in the settlement protecting Trump from I.R.S. audits, a guarantee he said he needed before voting to advance Mr. Blanche’s confirmation.
“I thought we were pretty close to landing the plane last night,” Mr. Cornyn said. “But this morning there’s been some more complications.”
