President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would consider withdrawing Todd Blanche’s nomination to be the next U.S. Attorney General rather than concede to demands from two Republican senators who want him to give up plans to use $1.8 billion in tax dollars to reward criminals who were prosecuted during previous Democratic administrations.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump called his ex-criminal defense attorney a “star” who “has the potential to go down as one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time” while grousing that Senators John Cornyn, R-Texas and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., are “refusing to vote” for Blanche’s confirmation. He also vowed to keep Blanche in place as acting attorney general regardless of what the senate does with his nomination.

“I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office,” he said.

Both Cornyn and Tillis are in their last year of service in the upper chamber — the Texas senator lost a primary to a Trump-backed challenger, while Tillis elected to retire rather than face a MAGA insurgent over his past criticism of the president.

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