Trump says he plans to nominate Blanche for attorney general

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump announced that he planned to soon make Todd Blanche, who leads the Justice Department on an acting basis, the "permanent attorney general," a move that would install a fervent loyalist at the top of the nation's law enforcement apparatus.

A video posted on Wednesday by White House adviser Dan Scavino showed Trump making the announcement during a Rose Garden event.

Blanche, a former personal lawyer to Trump, has has served as acting attorney general since the president dismissed Pam Bondi in early April. Before that, Blanche had been Bondi's chief deputy. The White House has yet to formally nominate Blanche.

Speaking Thursday during a press conference in Ohio, Blanche said he was "honored and humbled" to receive the nod from Trump and vowed to try and win over U.S. senators ahead of what could be a tough confirmation battle.

"I have a good relationship with the Senate on both sides. I don't say no to phone calls," Blanche said. "I'm looking forward to working with the senators and getting them the information they need through the confirmation process," he said.

If Trump follows through on his plans, senators could grill Blanche over his role in the department's release of files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, as well as Trump's recent attempt to establish a $1.8 billion fund to pay victims of alleged government "weaponization" and targeting of the president's political foes.

Blanche, who has shown enthusiasm for carrying out Trump's agenda and defended prosecutions of some of the president's opponents, will face intense scrutiny from Democrats and perhaps some Republicans over the turmoil at the department since Trump returned to office in January 2025. Thousands of federal prosecutors and FBI agents have been fired or resigned.

Blanche told reporters in April that he hadn't been pressured to carry out retribution against Trump's political enemies.

At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Blanche said the administration would not move forward with the fund, which had been a key pillar of the agreement Trump reached in May with the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department over leaks of his tax information during his first term.

Blanche, according to his LinkedIn profile, graduated from Brooklyn Law School and later supervised prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

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-With assistance from Chris Strohm.

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This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 12:53 PM.