After weeks of half-answered questions about President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion lawsuit settlement with his own government, the painstaking negotiations over Todd Blanche’s nomination to be attorney general are still short of an agreement.

Instead, the talks have underscored an emerging reality for Trump: there are drawbacks to waging political war against his own party’s senators.

Republicans postponed a planned Thursday vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee due to opposition from Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who want a written agreement that Trump’s temporarily abandoned settlement fund — and his immunity from IRS audits — won’t be revived. Blanche’s verbal assurances that the settlement fund is dead, without corresponding changes in the legal agreement or court filings, won’t satisfy Cornyn and Tillis.

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The senators have continued negotiating with Blanche, seeking a written agreement. A meeting between Cornyn and Blanche on Thursday ended without one.

“It was constructive but we are not there yet,” Cornyn told MS NOW in a private direct message. A vote next week is possible, he added.

Trump offered on Thursday to withhold Blanche’s nomination until “after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office,” in a Truth Social post. But the increasingly tense relationship between the White House and the Senate suggests Trump’s problem isn’t just with two lawmakers. It reflects a broader institutional clash between a president demanding loyalty and senators insisting on exercising their constitutional role.

The roots of Trump’s problem with Cornyn and Tillis are obvious. After Trump helped end their political careers by flirting with or outright supporting primary challenges, the two became free agents — with no reason to show loyalty to the president. 

But both lawmakers on Thursday characterized the Blanche fight as a more nebulous issue. 

Cornyn, responding to Trump’s social media post, wrote on X that he and Tillis aren’t alone in their concerns about the settlement fund. 

“POTUS is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis,” Cornyn wrote.

Tillis, meanwhile, said he suspected someone higher up in the administration — besides Blanche — was preventing a deal from coming together.

“Todd Blanche is negotiating in good faith, but it’s clear that the approval to get this done is above his pay grade, and we just need to get to that pay grade,” Tillis told MS NOW. “I don’t believe it’s the president.”

When pressed on who he believes is stalling negotiations, Tillis refused to say.

“I don’t operate that way,” Tillis said. “Right now, I hope y’all never know who it is.”

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On one hand, Cornyn and Tillis have proven they’re serious about their demands, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said.

“I’ve talked to both Senator Cornyn and Senator Tillis, and they thought they were making good progress in getting it worked out, but they weren’t kidding around,” Kennedy told reporters Thursday. “A couple of you have asked me, ‘Is Cornyn bluffing? Is Tillis bluffing?’ No, they don’t bluff.”

Still, the standoff is unlikely to last forever. While Cornyn and Tillis have demonstrated a willingness to stall the nomination, Blanche remains acting attorney general and can continue serving in that role indefinitely.

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If Cornyn and Tillis want to extract lasting concessions from the administration — even if they fall short of everything they’ve sought — they’ll eventually need to get behind Blanche. Punchbowl News reported Friday that the senators are moving closer to a deal, and that there is “fresh hope” this could wrap up soon.

But Trump continues to demonstrate that he can blow up progress in the time it takes to post online. On Friday, the president complained on Truth Social that Cornyn didn’t have an issue with the settlement fund until Trump backed his primary opponent. Tillis then wrote on X that it was clear the fund “is still alive,” blaming an unnamed “incompetent personal adviser” to Trump.

The issues go beyond just Trump, though — and the president’s detractors in the Senate go beyond just Cornyn and Tillis. While it’s unclear how many more members could oppose Blanche, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told reporters on Wednesday she has the same concerns as her colleagues.

“I have asked for much the same that Senator Cornyn and Senator Tillis have in terms of assurances on the IRS audit language, narrowing that, and on the anti-weaponization fund,” Murkowski told reporters Wednesday. “They have made very clear in their public statements that they expect to see something in writing. As far as I know, that hasn’t happened yet.”

Because Murkowski doesn’t serve on the Judiciary Committee, she has the luxury of letting Cornyn and Tillis lead the opposition. When asked specifically where she stands on Blanche’s nomination, Murkowski balked.

“Well, nothing for me to do unless the Judiciary Committee moves it out,” she said.

Other independent-minded Republicans could pose a problem for Trump. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told MS NOW on Tuesday she’s “waiting to see the outcome of the hearing on the anti-weaponization fund and the IRS issues.” And Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who lost his primary election to a Trump-backed opponent, told reporters he’s also “concerned about the weaponization of the Justice Department.”

Even among Republicans who support Blanche, Trump’s estranged relationship with the Senate is evident. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who has defended the concept of an anti-weaponization fund, said he has “no idea” how many Republicans share Cornyn and Tillis’ concerns.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he hopes to see Blanche confirmed “once the questions are sufficiently answered.” 

When asked more broadly about Trump’s criticism of Thune’s leadership, Thune offered a pointed reminder of the Senate’s independence.

“He doesn’t vote in our elections,” he said.

Ali Vitali and Mychael Schnell contributed to this report.

Jack Fitzpatrick

Jack Fitzpatrick covers Congress for MS NOW. He previously reported for Bloomberg Government, Morning Consult and National Journal. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Arizona State University.