“He’s acting Attorney General. Tomorrow. I’m instructing Dan (Scavino) and everybody else that’s ​involved in that very complicated process, which is going ​to go, I think, very quickly - that we ⁠are going to make him permanent attorney general,” Trump said ​at a White House event, according to a video posted ​on X late on Wednesday by his aide Scavino.

Blanche, 51, took over leadership of the Justice Department after Trump fired Pam Bondi in April ​amid tension over the agency’s release of files related ​to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and frustration that the department ‌was ⁠not moving forcefully enough against the White House’s supposed political enemies.

Blanche has faced backlash from Republican senators, and even some White House aides, over the Justice Department’s now-scuttled plan to create ​a $1.8 billion fund ​for victims ⁠of alleged government “weaponisation.”

He said on Tuesday that the DOJ would not be moving forward with the ​plan, which sparked fierce bipartisan opposition and threatened to derail ⁠a $72 billion funding package for Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Blanche would need near-unanimous Republican support in the Senate, which Republicans control by ⁠a ​narrow 53-47 margin.

Trump said in an interview broadcast on Wednesday that he was likely to nominate Blanche to the permanent position.