Trump says he will nominate Todd Blanche as attorney general

President Trump will formally nominate acting Attorney General https://www.axios.com/2026/04/02/trump-todd-blanche-acting-attorney-general" target="_blank">Todd Blanche to lead the Justice Department, with the paperwork expected Thursday.

Why it matters: Confirmation would keep the Justice Department in the hands of Trump's former criminal defense attorney, who has used his tenure to https://www.axios.com/2026/01/29/trump-doj-judges-virginia-court-lindsey-halligan" target="_blank">fight judges, indict former FBI director https://www.axios.com/2026/04/28/trump-doj-indicts-james-comey" target="_blank">James Comey and dismiss critics of the department's handling of the Epstein files.

The latest: The president revealed the pick in a video that deputy White House chief of staff Dan Scavino https://x.com/Scavino47/status/2062369458723680722" target="_blank">posted to X late Wednesday.

• "We are going to make him permanent attorney general," Trump says in the video, vowing to start the process the next day.
• The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The intrigue: Trump is elevating Blanche days after his most public setback.

• The acting AG spent weeks defending a nearly https://www.axios.com/2026/05/18/trump-irs-lawsuit-dropped" target="_blank">$1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund, a taxpayer payout to people who say they were wrongly targeted by the government.

  It was born of the DOJ's settlement of Trump's own lawsuit against the IRS.

• After Senate Republicans balked, especially at the prospect of payouts to Jan. 6 rioters, he killed the fund Tuesday.
• Still, Blanche https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/us/politics/trump-irs-settlement.html" target="_blank">said the department will keep the settlement's provisions https://www.axios.com/2026/05/19/trump-tax-settlement-irs-anti-weaponization-fund-doj" target="_blank">prohibiting the IRS from auditing Trump's past returns.
• Trump has demurred, continuing to call the fund a "beautiful thing" https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/03/politics/anti-weaponization-fund-trump" target="_blank">to CNN and saying he doesn't know if it's dead.

Catch up quick: Blanche was Trump's criminal defense attorney, who steered him through his 2024 hush money conviction and the two federal cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith that never reached trial.

• He's run the DOJ on an acting basis since Trump pushed out Pam Bondi in April, frustrated she hadn't delivered prosecutions of his enemies, https://www.axios.com/2026/04/02/pam-bondi-attorney-general-out" target="_blank">Axios previously reported.
• As deputy attorney general, Blanche had publicly declared a https://www.axios.com/2025/11/09/doj-blanche-war-activist-judges-dc-bar-associations" target="_blank">"war" on judges and state bar associations.

What's next: Blanche cleared the Senate as deputy AG last year 52–46, on a party line vote.

• That was before the revolt over the fund, and before Trump spent the primary season https://www.axios.com/2026/05/21/trump-2028-gop-revenge-campaign" target="_blank">ending the careers of Republicans he deemed insufficiently loyal.