Blowback to the weaponization fund represents only a sliver of the mounting tension between the White House and the Senate GOP — presenting a potentially rocky road to confirmation for Blanche. Last month, the Senate advanced a measure to restrict further military action in Iran. In recent weeks, Trump-backed candidates have successfully ousted two GOP incumbents, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.

North Carolina’s Sen. Thom Tillis, who is retiring, said the weaponization fund “would be one of several things that somebody would have to explain to me” before he would vote to confirm Blanche.

Blanche has enjoyed an unusually close relationship with the president, forged by his role as Trump’s lead defense attorney as Trump battled four criminal cases in the lead-up to the 2024 election.

In the wake of Bondi’s departure, Blanche has appeared to make a concerted effort to step up the Justice Department’s efforts to target Trump’s perceived political enemies. Weeks into Blanche’s tenure as acting attorney general, prosecutors obtained a fresh grand jury indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, charging him with two felonies for allegedly threatening Trump through an Instagram post of sea shells arranged to read “86 47.”

Blanche also intensified investigations into former CIA Director John Brennan, installing former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova to oversee that probe.

At a press conference in April, Blanche suggested he wasn’t lobbying for the attorney general nomination and made clear he was so devoted to Trump that he’d serve him in any capacity.

“I love working for President Trump. It’s the greatest honor of a lifetime,” Blanche told reporters. “If he chooses to nominate me, that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate somebody else and I go back to being the DAG, that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say, ‘Thank you very much. I love you, sir.’ So, I don’t have any goals or aspirations beyond that.”

After college, Blanche worked as a paralegal in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York while attending Brooklyn Law School at night. He later joined that office as a prosecutor, serving for about a decade before heading into private practice at the Washington-based law firm WilmerHale and the Manhattan-based Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

Blanche quit his partnership at Cadwalader in 2023 to take on the lead role in Trump’s defense against state court prosecutions in Georgia and New York, as well as federal prosecutions in Washington, D.C. and Florida.

Blanche was confirmed to the deputy attorney general post in March 2025 by a 52-46 vote.

Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.