Welcome to From the Politics Desk, a daily newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
In today’s edition, we dig into the uncertain paths forward for Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination and the Iran war.
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— Adam Wollner
Trump’s IRS carveout threatens to hold up Todd Blanche’s AG nomination
Todd Blanche’s bid to the next attorney general faced a setback today as two key Republicans pressed the Justice Department to commit in writing to kill an “anti-weaponization” fund that could give money to President Donald Trump’s allies and restrict the scope of the tax audit immunity given to the him and his family members.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to hold a hearing to advance Blanche’s nomination tomorrow morning. But GOP Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who have clashed with Trump and are not facing re-election in November, have emerged as potential roadblocks on Blanche’s path to the full Senate.
Much of the discussion has been around the “anti-weaponization fund” that was established under a purported settlement between Trump and the executive branch he controls over a lawsuit the president filed over the disclosure of his tax records, which led to a five-year prison sentence for a former IRS contractor.
A federal judge in Virginia indefinitely blocked the fund after a former Jan. 6 prosecutor sued. A federal judge in Florida found that Trump’s IRS lawsuit was brought in “bad faith” for an “improper purpose,” and ordered sanctions against several people involved, including Blanche.
But the settlement agreement also had provisions that offered Trump — along with his family members and companies — some protection from IRS audits.
Cornyn, who lost his GOP primary earlier this year to Trump-backed Ken Paxton, told reporters that Blanche’s team had failed to provide written proposals to modify the release that was signed in the tax dispute with Trump and his and his organization.
“I haven’t seen a single piece of writing that is responsive to what I’ve requested,” Cornyn said.
Tillis, who is retiring at the end of his term, said he was in active discussions with the Justice Department.
“They’re working on a draft right now,” Tillis said this afternoon. “We’ve been in constant daily contact with DOJ, and to their credit, they’re engaging.”
After Trump and Netanyahu meet, the Iran war’s future remains hazy
Analysis by Andrea Mitchell
As the United States enters its sixth month of a war with Iran that Israeli and U.S. leaders both said would last only four to six weeks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump Tuesday and other top national security officials for the first time since the conflict started.
In Washington for the funeral of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, a key Netanyahu ally, a senior Israeli official told NBC News and other reporters that they discussed three major options: A good deal to eliminate Iran having a nuclear weapon; no deal, but a sustained blockade and economic pressure; and military action.
Without saying what Israel’s preference is, a senior Israeli official said there was broad agreement — as Trump repeatedly affirms — that Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. But Trump told my colleague Kristen Welker last month that the U.S. has eyes on the nuclear facilities the U.S. and Israel bombed last June, and that nothing can move in or out of those two sites without the U.S. seeing it.
Today, the Israeli official demurred from saying his country disagrees with Trump’s assessments. In particular, he wouldn’t say whether Netanyahu is urging the U.S. to bomb another suspected nuclear site — Pickaxe Mountain. It has been widely reported that U.S. intelligence assesses that site would be impossible to eliminate even with the most devastating U.S. bunker-buster bombs, but it could be effectively closed and made unreachable by Iran.
At the behest of the administration, Israel has not re-engaged in the recurring U.S. strikes against Iran that have taken place since a 60-day ceasefire was officially agreed to in mid-June. At the time, Israel strongly criticized the memorandum of understanding as being far too generous to Iran because it approved the release of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets. None of that was turned over because of the collapse of diplomacy and reignition of airstrikes by both sides, and more recently, strikes by Iran against U.S. and Arab allied assets in the region.
During his three days in Washington, Netanyahu also met separately with Vice President JD Vance, who was initially skeptical of the Iran war, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other Pentagon officials. Still at issue: Will economic pressure alone get the Iranian regime to permit open access to the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow international waterway critical to the global economy?
The Israeli official who briefed reporters today acknowledged that sustained economic pressure — if it cut off all supplies to Iran — could be a solution, although it would hurt Iranian civilians. But a second Israeli official said money is still flowing from Iran’s regime through Turkey to Hezbollah, its proxy that Israel is fighting in southern Lebanon.
Both Trump and Netanyahu are facing elections this fall. The big difference is that Netanyahu, despite growing opposition at home, has strong popular support for resuming attacks against Iran.
Trump’s political reality is exactly opposite: the war has depleted the supply of U.S. missiles and interceptors for Patriot air defense systems and is damaging his popularity, even with his own base. It has caused gas and diesel fuel prices to spike and contributed to inflation.
While the Israeli briefer said today that Trump has been an “amazing ally” for Israel in the war, he acknowledged the U.S. president is the senior partner and Netanyahu the junior — making it more imperative for Trump’s political standing to find some diplomatic way out of the current standoff.
➡️ Related read: Trump increasingly ‘exasperated’ on Iran as top officials can’t agree on strategy, by Courtney Kube, Monica Alba, Peter Nicholas, Gordon Lubold, Katherine Doyle and Andrea Mitchell
🗞️ Today’s other top stories
- 🤖 New frontiers: Opposition to data centers is crashing squarely into ongoing primary and general election contests across the midterm landscape, with the intensity quickly ratcheting up across numerous states. Read more →
- 🦡 On Wisconsin: A new Marquette University Law School poll showed Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist state lawmaker, expanding her lead in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, taking 38% of support. The results came after the first and only debate of the primary, in which Hong did not face any direct attacks from her rivals.
- 🔵 2028 watch: Former Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler is exploring a run for U.S. Senate in 2028, Natasha Korecki and Adam Edelman scoop. Read more →
- 🏦 Hold steady: The Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged for the seventh consecutive month, despite lingering concerns about inflation. Read more →
- 🤐 Pleading the Fifth: Dr. Anthony Fauci declined to answer senators’ questions at a contentious hearing on the origins of Covid and the government’s handling of the pandemic, saying he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right to avoid the possibility of Republicans using his testimony to prosecute him for perjury. Read more →
- ☑️ The ayes have it: The Senate voted 51-47 along party lines to confirm Jay Clayton as the next director of national intelligence. Read more →
- ✈️ Learning to fly: Trump announced a sweeping makeover of Dulles International Airport, including the construction of new concourses and the removal of the airport’s aging shuttles known as “people movers.” Read more →
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.
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