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The Republican victory in the Arizona House of Representatives, along with the slow-count victory in California earlier today, gave the GOP a 218 House majority victory.
Republicans earlier took control of the Senate from Democrats.
With a hard-fought but slim majority, Republican leaders envision a mandate to turn around the federal government and quickly implement Trump’s vision for the country.
The new president has promised to carry out the nation’s largest deportation operation ever, extend tax breaks, punish his political enemies, take control of the federal government’s most powerful tools and reshape the American economy.
GOP electoral victories ensure that Congress will be on board with that agenda, and Democrats will be virtually powerless to check it.
When Trump was elected president in 2016, Republicans also won Congress, but he still faced Republican leaders resistant to his policy ideas, as well as a Supreme Court with a liberal majority.
Truth Social CEO tapped for intelligence role under Trump
When he returns to the White House, Trump will work with a Republican Party completely transformed by his “Make America Great Again” movement and a Supreme Court dominated by conservative justices, including three he appointed.
Trump gathered House Republicans at a Capitol Hill hotel Wednesday morning, marking his first return to Washington since the election.
“I doubt I’ll run again unless you say, ‘He’s good, we’ve got to come up with something else,'” Trump told a room full of lawmakers who laughed in response.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who with Trump’s support has won the Republican Conference nomination to remain president next year, has spoken of taking the “windpipe” of the federal government and its programs, looking for ways to overhaul even popular programs recently championed by Democrats. .
The Louisiana Republican, an ardent conservative, has brought the House Republican Conference closer to Trump during the campaign season as they prepare an “ambitious” 100-day agenda.
“Republicans in the House and Senate have a mandate,” Johnson said earlier this week.
“The American people want us to implement and deliver that ‘America First’ agenda.”
Trump’s allies in the House of Representatives are already signaling that they will seek retribution for legal problems Trump faced while he was not in office.
The new president said today that he will nominate Matt Gaetz, a fierce loyalist, for attorney general.
Meanwhile, Jim Jordan, chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, said GOP lawmakers are “taking nothing off the table” in their plans to investigate special counsel Jack Smith, even as Smith shuts down two federal investigations into Trump for conspiracy to impeach him. the results of the 2020 presidential election and stockpiling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Still, with several races yet to be called, Republicans could hold the majority by just a few seats when the new Congress begins.
Trump’s decision to withdraw from the House of Representatives for seats in his administration — so far Gaetz, Mike Waltz and Elise Stefanik — could complicate Johnson’s ability to maintain a majority in the early days of the new Congress.
Gaetz submitted his resignation today, effective immediately.
Johnson said he hoped the seat could be filled by the time Congress reconvenes on Jan. 3.
Replacing members of the House of Representatives requires special elections, and the congressional districts held by the three outgoing members have been held by Republicans for years.
With a slim majority, a highly functional House is also far from guaranteed.
The past two years of Republican control of the House of Representatives have been defined by infighting as hard-line conservative factions sought to gain influence and power in open defiance of their party leadership.
While Johnson—occasionally with Trump’s help—has largely tamed open rebellions against his leadership, the right wing of the party is on the rise and ambitious after 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 he will stick with some of the most extreme proposals advocated by Trump and his allies.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, meanwhile, is trying to keep Democrats relevant to any legislation that passes Congress, which will depend on Democratic leaders unifying more than 200 members, even as the party goes postmortem after its election defeat.
In the Senate, GOP leaders, fresh from winning a landslide majority, are already working with Trump to confirm his Cabinet picks.
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota won the internal election today to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history.
Thune has been critical of Trump in the past, but praised the incoming president during his leadership campaign.
“This Republican team is united. We are on the same team,” Thune said.
“We are excited to restore the majority and to work with our colleagues in the House of Representatives to implement President Trump’s agenda.”
The GOP’s 53-seat Senate majority also ensures that Republicans will have some breathing room when it comes to confirming Cabinet seats or Supreme Court justices if a vacancy occurs.
Not all of these certificates are guaranteed.
Republicans were in disbelief when news broke on Capitol Hill that Trump would nominate Gaetz as his attorney general.
Even Trump’s close allies in the Senate have distanced themselves from supporting Gaetz, who has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use.
Still, Trump demanded on Sunday that every Republican leader must allow him to make administration appointments without a vote while the Senate is in recess.
Democrats could potentially fight such a maneuver.
Meanwhile, Trump’s supporters on social media, including Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, opposed the choice of a traditional Republican to lead the Senate chamber.
Thune served as a senior lieutenant to McConnell, who once called the former president “a despicable human being” in his private memos.
However, McConnell made it clear that on Capitol Hill, the days of Republican resistance to Trump are over.
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