Washington DC - The US Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Todd Blanche to be attorney general early on Saturday after the GOP shrugged off major Democratic concerns.

Blanche, who has already been serving as the acting attorney general since Pam Bondi was ousted in April, formerly represented Trump as his private attorney in several criminal trials before entering government.

The Senate, which Republicans narrowly control, confirmed Blanche's bid for attorney general by 50 votes to 49 early on Saturday, despite several defections among the GOP's ranks.

Republican senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joined the Democrats in voting no, underlining the political sensitivity of the nomination.

Mexico Trump's avocado politics in Mexico moves into dramatic next phase

In a post to X acknowledging the confirmation, Blanche said he was "deeply honored by the trust and confidence President Trump has placed in me to lead the Department of Justice."

"I am grateful to the Senate for staying late to complete this process. To the dedicated public servants of the Department of Justice, thank you for your work each day to uphold the law and keep our country safe," Blanche wrote.

Trump, who has upended US political norms by seeking to bring nominally independent government agencies – such as the DOJ – under his increasingly direct control, calls Blanche a "star."

Democrats opposed Blanche from the beginning, accusing Trump of turning the DOJ into a political weapon.

"The attorney general is supposed to be the people's lawyer," Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Tuesday.

"Mr Blanche continues to operate as the president's personal lawyer, treating the [DOJ] like a law firm serving one client – the president."

There were doubts over whether the White House could persuade a handful of Republican holdouts, without whom even the narrow confirmation would have been impossible.

The main sticking point was an attempt to establish a $1.8 billion slush fund for what Trump calls victims of politicized prosecutions, likely including the rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The other main issue was an extraordinary proposal granting immunity to Trump from tax audits.

Donald Trump Trump suffering indigestion over the price of a burrito

Blanche ultimately defused the internal party opposition with a written order over the weekend scrapping the so-called political "anti-weaponization fund" and saying that the audit immunity agreement with Trump would only apply "retroactively."

Since becoming acting attorney general, Blanche has been closely tied to what Democrats dub a Trump "retribution" campaign against the 80-year-old president's opponents.

Blanche has also been the target of criticism from victims of Jeffrey Epstein over the handling of the release of investigative files about the convicted sex offender, a one-time close friend of Trump.

Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Blanche represented Trump in his New York trial over alleged "hush money" paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.

He was also on the legal defense team in two federal cases brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith. Both cases were dropped after Trump won the 2024 election.