WASHINGTON DC – Republicans have won enough seats to control the House of Representatives, completing the party’s sweep into power and securing their hold on both chambers of Congress and the White House. Republicans gained control of the Senate last week.
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress Wednesday, ending an ethics probe after President-elect Donald Trump nominated him for attorney general. Gaetz’s nomination was one of several picks unveiled by Trump, including Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as health secretary, and former Rep. Doug Collins, an Air Force reservist, as veterans affairs secretary.
President Joe Biden welcomed Trump to the White House for an Oval Office visit that’s a traditional part of the peaceful handoff of power — a ritual Trump himself declined to participate in four years ago.
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The GOP’s majority is thin and a highly functioning House is also far from guaranteed
The past two years of Republican House control were defined by infighting as hardline conservative factions sought to gain influence and power by openly defying their party leadership. While Johnson — at times with Trump’s help — largely tamed open rebellions against his leadership, the right wing of the party is ascendant and ambitious on the heels of Trump’s election victory.
The Republican majority also depends on a small group of lawmakers who won tough elections by running as moderates. It remains to be seen whether they will stay on board for some of the most extreme proposals championed by Trump and his allies.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, meanwhile, is trying to keep Democrats relevant to any legislation that passes Congress, an effort that will depend on Democratic leaders unifying over 200 members, even as the party undergoes a postmortem of their election losses.
Trump’s governing trifecta will be different this time
When Trump was elected as president in 2016, Republicans also swept Congress, but he still encountered Republican leaders resistant to his policy ideas, as well as a Supreme Court with a liberal majority. Not this time.
When he returns to the White House, Trump will be working with a Republican Party that has been completely transformed by his “MAGA movement” and a Supreme Court dominated by conservative justices, including three that he appointed.
“Republicans in the House and Senate have a mandate,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said earlier this week. “The American people want us to implement and deliver that ‘America First’ agenda.”
Republicans win 218 US House seats, giving Donald Trump and the party control of government
Republicans have won enough seats to control the U.S. House, completing the party’s sweep into power and securing their hold on U.S. government alongside President-elect Donald Trump.
A House Republican victory in Arizona, alongside a win in slow-counting California earlier Wednesday, gave the GOP the 218 House victories that make up the majority. Republicans earlier gained control of the Senate from Democrats.
With hard-fought yet thin majorities, Republican leaders are envisioning a mandate to upend the federal government and swiftly implement Trump’s vision for the country.
The incoming president has promised to carry out the country’s largest-ever deportation operation, extend tax breaks, punish his political enemies, seize control of the federal government’s most powerful tools and reshape the U.S. economy. The GOP election victories ensure that Congress will be onboard for that agenda, and Democrats will be almost powerless to check it.
Some at the State Department express cautious optimism over Rubio nomination
At the State Department, at least some officials expressed cautious optimism about the Rubio nomination.
Three officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations with colleagues, said there was a sense that Rubio would be willing to work with and listen to career staff even if he might ultimately discard their advice.
And, one of them breathed a sigh of relief that Rubio was the least controversial pick announced by Trump.
In comparison to Gabbard, Gaetz and Pete Hegseth, Rubio, a current senator who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is likely to have a relatively quick and easy confirmation hearing and vote with support from all of his GOP colleagues and at least some Democrats.
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