Why Trump’s options to replace Pam Bondi may be limited: From the Politics Desk

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, Jonathan Allen examines President Donald Trump’s attorney general history after firing Pam Bondi, and what it could mean for her replacement. Plus, we dig into how a failed redistricting vote last year is looming large over Indiana’s Republican primaries.
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— Adam Wollner
Why Trump’s options to replace Pam Bondi may be limited
Analysis by Jonathan Allen
With Attorney General Pam Bondi exiting President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, the pool for a permanent replacement may be very small.
In the short term, and perhaps for a longer stretch, she will be succeeded by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who served as a personal lawyer to Trump and who can move into an acting role as the nation’s top law enforcement officer without a new Senate confirmation vote.
But who would want the job permanently? And what does that even mean in the Trump era?
Trump publicly hammered on his first AG, Jeff Sessions, before finally driving him out in November 2018. Rod Rosenstein was acting AG for one day and was succeeded by another acting AG, Matthew Whitaker, who lasted about three months.
Then came Bill Barr, who, like Sessions, lasted less than two years. Trump pummeled him for failing to back the president’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Jeffrey Rosen took over, in an acting role, for the final month of Trump’s first term.
Trump’s first pick to lead the DOJ in his second term, former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, didn’t even get a vote in the Senate. Bondi made it through confirmation with a few votes to spare (54-46). But the president complained publicly and privately about her performance. He wanted her to prosecute his adversaries more efficiently and effectively, and her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files left room for criticism from across the political spectrum.
It would be a surprise, then, if the next attorney general makes it to the end of Trump’s term in 2029.
None of that even gets at the challenge of responding to the president’s demands to argue for novel interpretations of the law, like a tariff policy that was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and an attempt to end automatic birthright citizenship that the justices seem likely to reject.
Nor does it account for the pain and suffering of a Senate confirmation hearing that would surely include uncomfortable questions about the Epstein files, Trump’s policies and the president’s penchant for targeting enemies. Trump, too, may want to avoid that spectacle.
For the time being, Blanche’s automatic elevation allows him to do so. Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, has also been under consideration, according to several sources who spoke to NBC News. Under federal vacancy law, a Senate-confirmed official can be moved into a role in another department — for a limited period of time and in an acting capacity — without a new vote.
That’s why Blanche and Zeldin make more sense than someone who would need to go through a full confirmation process. The same could be said of a relatively small number of officials already serving in high-ranking administration jobs.
Finding a nominee willing to take on the confirmation process, only to serve in a job that has had a short shelf life for its occupants during Trump’s time in the White House, would be a tall order.
Trump goes on a revenge tour in Indiana after failed redistricting vote
By Jane C. Timm and Matt Dixon
Nearly four months ago, President Donald Trump suffered a rare rebuke in Indiana, when the GOP-led state Senate voted down a redrawn congressional map he had aggressively advocated for.
Now, ahead of next month’s primary, Trump and his allies are out for revenge.
Trump has endorsed five challengers to Republican state senators who opposed the redistricting push, inviting them and another candidate for an open seat to the White House last month. He’s also backing a spate of incumbents who supported the failed map proposal, which was designed to allow Republicans to pick up two seats in this fall’s midterm elections.
“It was just basically ‘work hard, we’ll be there for you, don’t let me down,’” a longtime Trump adviser said of the March meeting.
The fallout from the redistricting effort has resulted in an unusually active state legislative primary season in Indiana. Already, more than $2 million has been poured into ads in Republican Senate primaries, according to the tracking firm AdImpact, with millions more to come from outside groups. In 2024, less than $500,000 was spent on Indiana Senate ads across the entire election cycle.
Many of the ads that have run so far focus heavily on Trump. One ad from American Leadership PAC, a super PAC with ties to Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., backing state Rep. Michelle Davis in her race against state Sen. Greg Walker mentions Trump’s name four times in 15 seconds.
“President Trump endorses Michelle Davis for state Senate. Strong, pro-Trump,” the narrator says. “Trump-endorsed Michelle Davis will never let you down. Endorsed by President Trump, Michelle Davis for state Senate.”
Another digital ad from the Banks-linked nonprofit group Hoosier Leadership for America accused state Sen. Greg Goode of being “for liberal Democrats” and “against Trump” after he voted against the redistricting proposal.
“Tell Greg Goode he’s voting like a bad guy,” the narrator says.
Some Indiana Republicans warned that the aggressive approach was reminiscent of the strategy that was used to try to sway reluctant lawmakers on redistricting last year. Ultimately, those attacks from Trump and his allies fell flat.
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That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.
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