Donald Trump has threatened to “temporarily” shelve his bid to make former personal lawyer Todd Blanche the permanent US attorney general, after resistance from Republican senators he claims he refused to endorse.

Blanche, currently serving as acting attorney general, has been struggling to win over a handful of GOP senators. His prospects dimmed Wednesday when Senator John Cornyn of Texas said he wouldn't back Blanche without written confirmation that a planned $1.8bn slush fund for the president's allies was dead.

Writing on Truth Social Thursday, Trump called Blanche a “STAR” but noted that Cornyn and Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina - both of whom he says he refused to endorse and whose careers he claims to have ended - “are refusing to vote for this Great Nominee.” Trump declared he has “no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name” and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office.