WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday defended his administration’s controversial proposal for a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” for Jan. 6 defendants and others who he says were unfairly targeted by the government.
Trump’s continued flirtation with the weaponization fund undermines assurances from his acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and others in the administration that the idea, which faces strong opposition from some key Republicans, is dead.
The issue delayed for several weeks and nearly derailed a $70 billion bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol through the end of Trump’s term.
And it has thrown Blanche’s nomination to be the nation’s chief law enforcement official into limbo, with two Republicans — Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — blocking it over concerns about the settlement between Trump and the IRS that created the weaponization fund.
But Trump’s comments Friday are only worsening tensions with the two senators.
Asked Friday at a Cabinet meeting whether the fund is dead, Trump replied: “It is dead, but you know, I wish it weren’t. To be honest with you, I think people were horribly treated, horribly abused. This has nothing to do with Todd.”
Blanche is now unlikely to be confirmed before the Senate departs next week for its five-week summer recess. The chamber is not slated to return until after Labor Day.
In a post on Truth Social earlier in the day, Trump specifically lashed out at Cornyn, suggesting that the longtime senator was standing in the way of the Blanche nomination because the president had backed a primary challenger, Ken Paxton, who defeated Cornyn in May.
“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called ‘Fund,’ which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that Cornyn had been among the Republicans who had decried the FBI’s 2022 raid on Mar-a-Lago.
“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote.
“Todd Blanche, a good man, should be immediately approved as U.S. Attorney General,” Trump added.
Cornyn has not directly responded to Trump’s post. But on Friday, he retweeted two individuals who questioned Trump’s comments on X. One was GOP strategist Steven Duffield, who wrote: “This does not sound like citizen Trump has agreed to end the Fund.”
Responding to Trump’s post, Tillis on Friday wrote on social media, “The President made it clear today that the so-called Anti Weaponization Fund is still alive, which is exactly why we are attempting to formally end it.”
Blanche, Tillis said, “has been forthright, thoughtful and patient.”
The senator added that Blanche’s confirmation has “hit a snag only because an incompetent personal advisor to the President refuses to amend the bogus settlement.”
“Anyone who attacked law enforcement should still be in prison, not getting a check from the federal government,” Tillis said.
During his Senate confirmation hearing this month, Blanche testified that the Trump administration was abandoning plans for the weaponization fund and that it was “dead.”
But the administration has yet to put anything in writing stating it will not try to launch the fund in the future — something that has raised alarm bells with some skeptics like Cornyn.
“What it suggests to me is they are looking for an out to do something different than what Todd Blanche testified to at his hearing,” Cornyn told reporters Thursday, “and that’s a problem.”
Both Cornyn and Tillis serve on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee. And a single GOP defection means that Blanche’s nomination cannot get out of committee and be sent to the full Senate.
Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, was forced to punt a Thursday vote to advance Blanche’s nomination until outstanding issues could be resolved. Grassley said he was committed to finding a resolution on Blanche.
“I’m not going to consider any other options because there’s no reason to consider other options at this point,” the chairman told reporters Thursday.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday night scheduled a vote for Tuesday morning on Blanche’s nomination, despite no announced changes from Cornyn or Tillis. A spokesperson for the committee said in a statement that scheduling the meeting now “gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President’s nominee.”
Both Tillis and Cornyn huddled with Blanche Thursday afternoon for about 45 minutes, according to a source familiar with the meeting. The three worked in a positive, collaborative manner in an attempt to resolve the IRS settlement issues, the source added.
There’s another issue with the IRS settlement that could cause problems for Blanche: It includes an agreement that the IRS will not prosecute Trump, his family members or his businesses over any tax claims through May of this year. Both Tillis and Cornyn have said that deal should be narrowed.
Also on Friday, Trump, his sons Don Jr. and Eric and the Trump Organization on Friday filed notice they were appealing the judge’s order that found their IRS lawsuit (which led to the settlement) was brought in “bad faith” and for an “improper purpose.” U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams found earlier this month that the facts of the case show it was “an attempt to use the Court to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President,” while spending billions of taxpayer dollars.
Blanche’s challenges may not be confined to just Cornyn and Tillis, who is not seeking re-election this fall. “We’re just on the front line because we’re in the Judiciary,” Cornyn said.
Indeed, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., whom Trump also worked to successfully defeat in a GOP primary this year, also expressed concerns about Blanche’s nomination, telling reporters, “I am very concerned about the weaponization of the Justice Department.”
“Shouldn’t every American be afraid of the weaponization of the Justice Department? If there’s not adequate answers for that, then probably there needs to be somebody else,” Cassidy said of Blanche.
