Politics|Loyalty to Trump Proves a Double-Edged Sword for Attorney General Nominee

The things Todd Blanche did to persuade President Trump to nominate him as attorney general might be the things that prevent him from being confirmed as attorney general.

Mr. Blanche, the acting attorney general and the former leader of Mr. Trump’s criminal defense team, has been a faithful executor of the president’s campaign of retribution and a guardian of the president’s interests. As a top official at the Justice Department, he embraced a damage-control role behind the scenes during the release of the Epstein files.

Earlier this year, when asked how he would respond if Mr. Trump fired him, Mr. Blanche replied, “I love you, sir.”

But Mr. Blanche’s audience-of-one approach, which got him to where he is now, has collided with the jury-of-two reality in the Senate that has, thus far, kept him from the prize he covets: the stability and status conferred by a Senate confirmation.

Two Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator John Cornyn of Texas and Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, are blocking his path to a floor vote over concerns about a deal Mr. Blanche signed to resolve Mr. Trump’s lawsuit against the I.R.S. It created a $1.8 billion fund for purported victims of prosecutorial abuses and included a provision that would grant sweeping tax immunity to Mr. Trump and his family.

That puts Mr. Blanche in the crossfire between the holdouts and Mr. Trump, who on Thursday floated the idea of temporarily withdrawing his nomination, seemingly unwilling to give away a tax shield that could result in a $100 million windfall to secure the confirmation of a man who has pledged his loyalty to him.