Trump to nominate Todd Blanche as permanent attorney general during Senate vote-a-rama

Donald Trump said he would nominate Todd Blanche to be attorney general permanently, elevating the president’s former defense lawyer from acting chief of the Justice Department to the post’s full-time occupant while the Senate was absorbed in a sprawling budget vote-a-rama on Capitol Hill.

Blanche had led the department on an acting basis since April, after Trump fired Pam Bondi. Before returning to government, Blanche was one of Trump’s personal defense attorneys and later served as deputy attorney general, a résumé that makes the nomination a clear signal about where Trump wants the department to sit in his second term: closer to the president, more loyal, and less insulated from the White House.

The move is more than symbolism. A permanent attorney general would have the authority to set prosecution priorities, oversee the department’s leadership, and give Trump a steadier hand over an institution that controls federal law enforcement. Under Blanche’s watch, the department has moved aggressively against longtime Trump targets, reinforcing the impression that the president is seeking not just a loyal messenger but a durable institutional shift at Justice.

The timing also tied Blanche’s fate to the Senate’s current power struggle. Senators were in the middle of a budget reconciliation vote-a-rama on a package centered on immigration enforcement funding, while also debating a Justice Department anti-weaponization fund that Democrats have tried to block or narrow. One report put that fund at about $1.776 billion, while others described it as roughly $1.8 billion.

Vote-a-ramas allow unlimited amendments after debate time expires on a budget resolution or reconciliation bill, and the chamber has seen as many as 44 straight votes in a single session. This week’s marathon was the sixth of the 119th Congress, underscoring how aggressively Republicans have used reconciliation this year to move party-line legislation.

The confirmation fight ahead is likely to be difficult. Some Republican senators have already shown hesitation, and their votes may matter if Blanche’s nomination becomes a proxy battle over Trump’s control of the Justice Department. Blanche told the House Appropriations Committee on June 2 that he felt no pressure from Trump, but the politics around his nomination suggest the opposite: the president is making plain that the department’s next permanent leader should be someone built for his agenda, and the Senate now has to decide how far it is willing to go along.