President Trump on Friday and Saturday delivered contradictory signals on his proposed $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund," calling it "dead" in one breath and threatening to push it through Congress in the next, further complicating a Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination scheduled for Tuesday morning.

The whipsaw leaves Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, the two Republicans blocking Blanche in committee, with no written assurance the fund is buried and no path to release the acting attorney general's nomination unless the White House puts the promise on paper before the 9 a.m. markup. A single GOP defection kills the nomination in committee, and the full Senate departs for a five-week recess at the end of next week.

The fund

The fund emerged from a May settlement of Trump's lawsuit against the IRS and Treasury Department. It would pay people the president says were politically persecuted, principally defendants prosecuted over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Trump on his first day back in office pardoned more than 1,500 people charged in that attack. Blanche, testifying at his Senate confirmation hearing, said the fund was dead. "No, the settlement fund is just not moving forward," Blanche told Cornyn. "There's no modification. It never started. No money went from the Treasury to any other account."

The holdouts

Cornyn, who lost his Republican primary in May to Trump-endorsed challenger Ken Paxton, and Tillis, who is retiring in January, want the White House to formalize what Blanche said under oath. The Justice Department has offered language rescinding Blanche's May 18 order that established the fund, according to a document reviewed by the Associated Press, but the senators want more. They also want to narrow a separate provision granting Trump, his family and his businesses immunity from IRS audits through May of this year. "Todd Blanche said it was limited to the parties to the litigation — and it was retrospective, not prospective," Cornyn said. "And all we're doing is asking them to put that in writing."

Trump reverses

Trump muddied the picture on Friday. Asked at a Cabinet meeting at Camp David whether the fund was dead, he told reporters: "It is dead, but you know, I wish it weren't. To be honest with you, I think people were horribly treated, horribly abused. This has nothing to do with Todd." On Saturday morning he went further on Truth Social, threatening to keep Blanche as acting attorney general and revive the fund if the two senators refused to advance the nomination. "It will immediately be back on the table, and I will get it done," Trump wrote.

Tillis responds

Tillis responded within hours of Friday's remarks. "The President made it clear today that the so-called Anti Weaponization Fund is still alive, which is exactly why we are attempting to formally end it," he wrote. The North Carolina senator called Blanche "forthright, thoughtful and patient" and attributed the impasse to "an incompetent personal advisor to the President." Three people with direct knowledge of the discussions told the AP that Trump legal adviser Boris Epshteyn is the adviser Tillis meant.

Court appeal

Also Friday, Trump, his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, and the Trump Organization filed notice they would appeal U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams's ruling earlier this month that the underlying IRS suit was brought in "bad faith" and for an "improper purpose." Williams criticized Blanche's role in the settlement, given his prior representation of the president.

The White House rejects the framing that any adviser is obstructing a deal. Communications director Steven Cheung said the AP's "sources are wrong" and that Blanche "should be confirmed immediately." Today's account draws from AP, NBC News and CBS News; no right-of-center outlet is represented in the dossier, so the administration's fuller substantive case for the fund itself reaches readers only through wire and network coverage.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley set the committee vote for 9 a.m. Tuesday. "Noticing the markup gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President's nominee," a committee spokesperson said. If Cornyn and Tillis hold, the Senate leaves town at the end of next week without a confirmed attorney general and does not return until mid-September.