Trump plans to nominate Todd Blanche as attorney general permanently

Donald Trump moved to make Todd Blanche his permanent attorney general, saying at a White House dinner on June 3 that he planned to nominate Blanche formally on Thursday. Blanche has served as acting attorney general since April, after Pam Bondi was ousted, and the president’s decision would put one of his closest legal allies in charge of the Justice Department’s sprawling law-enforcement apparatus.

Blanche’s rise has been unusually tied to Trump’s own legal battles. He was Trump’s personal lawyer and previously led the defense in the New York hush-money case as well as federal prosecutions brought by special counsel Jack Smith. That history makes his candidacy stand out inside the Justice Department, which said Blanche oversees the work of more than 100,000 employees. Critics say that combination of personal loyalty and institutional power sharpens the long-running question of how independent the department can remain when its leader once stood beside the president in criminal court.

If Trump follows through, Blanche will need Senate confirmation, and that fight is already shaping up as a partisan test. Some Republican senators have signaled hesitancy, and the nomination would again place Blanche before lawmakers who just a year ago confirmed him as deputy attorney general by a 52-46 vote on March 5, 2025. The narrow margin suggested limited room for defections, even before the politics around the attorney general’s office became more combustible.

The pressure has grown in recent days over a proposed $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund, which has stirred backlash among Republicans and complicated Blanche’s path to the top job. That fight underscores the central tension around his nomination: Trump is not just elevating a trusted aide, but a former defense lawyer whose career has been defined by standing between the president and federal prosecutors. Blanche is also, in modern history, the first acting attorney general to have served as the president’s personal criminal defense lawyer, a distinction that has only intensified concerns about prosecutorial independence as the confirmation battle approaches.