Pam Bondi's Replacement Icks Everyone Out With Just Four Simple Words

Donald Trump told the world that he'd fired U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi with a Truth Social post on April 2. In the same post, he said that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche would be replacing her as Acting Attorney General. That's the same Blanche that worked as Trump's personal lawyer on the hush money case, for which Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts. In the days after the change-up at the Department of Justice, Blanche has shown that he has what would appear to be one of the most important traits for someone in Trump's cabinet: abject loyalty. Everyone got to see that dedication to Trump in real time when Blanche told the president, "I love you, sir." As you can imagine, it's leaving people feeling unsettled.

Here's the context. In a press conference, Blanche was asked if he wanted to be the full-time attorney general, and he didn't come out with a simple yes or no. Instead, he said, "I love working for President Trump. It's the greatest honor of a lifetime. ... and if President Trump chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I'll say, 'Thank you very much, I love you, sir.'"

Blanche: "I did not ask for this job...If President Trump chooses to keep me as acting [AG], that's an honor. If he chooses to nominate me, that's an honor...If he chooses to nominate someone else and ask me to go do something else, I will say, 'Thank you very much. I love you,... pic.twitter.com/EJhcBuHuLz

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) April 7, 2026

It reminded us of the embarrassing moments when Kristi Noem sucked up to Trump before she was kicked out of the Department of Homeland Security. One person on X (formerly known as Twitter) wrote, "The signature self-humiliation in this cabinet is f****** embarrassing." And one person quipped, "Ah, the smell of groveling in the afternoon."

People just couldn't quite wrap their heads around why Todd Blanche would say such a thing about Donald Trump, considering the professional relationship the two of them have. One critic posted on X, "'I love you sir' really OMG who tells their boss they love them?!" Another commented, "I LOVE you? This is truly bizarre. Totally unprofessional. Scary cult crap."

The confusion ran deep, with people questioning how a person with extensive legal training — who was actually a registered Democrat until 2024 — would become such a Trump loyalist. As one person wrote on X, "Wonder how Blanche has arrived at this point. It's hard to understand how someone with a legal background wouldn't question most of the administration's actions."

More than anything, it seemed like Blanche was positioning himself to be the next nominee for attorney general. Only Trump can make the nomination, and Trump himself has admitted that he will help people who like him. More specifically, he said that he "loves people who are nice to him" during a speech at a private Easter lunch. It was first posted by the White House before being taken down, but not before it was shared online. Blanche certainly seems to have seen it.