With 218 US House seats won by Republicans, Trump and the party take control of the government.

Republican victories in Arizona and California, which counts slowly, earlier Wednesday handed the GOP the 218 House victories needed to form a majority.

Together with President-elect Donald Trump, Republicans have secured their grasp on the U.S. government by winning enough seats to control the U.S. House.

Along with a victory in slow-counting California early Wednesday, the GOP secured the 218 House victories necessary to form the majority in Arizona. Democrats had already lost the Senate to Republicans.

Republican leaders anticipate a mandate to overthrow the federal government and quickly carry out Trump's vision for the nation, although with hard-fought but narrow majorities.

The new president has pledged to restructure the U.S. economy, implement the nation's largest-ever deportation operation, punish his political rivals, extend tax incentives, and take control of the most potent federal instruments. The GOP's electoral wins guarantee that Congress will support that plan, and Democrats will have little to no ability to stop it.

Republicans also controlled Congress when Trump was elected president in 2016, but he still had to deal with a liberal-majority Supreme Court and Republican leaders who disagreed with his proposed policies. Not now.

Trump will take office with a Republican Party that has undergone a radical transformation as a result of his "Make America Great Again" campaign and a conservative-dominated Supreme Court.

On Wednesday morning, Donald Trump made his first trip back to Washington since the election to rally House Republicans at a hotel on Capitol Hill.

Trump told the crowded group of lawmakers, "I suspect I won't be running again unless you say, 'He's good, we got to figure something else.'" The senators laughed.

 
With Trump's support, House Speaker Mike Johnson was nominated by the Republican Conference to continue as speaker next year. Johnson has discussed using a "blowtorch" to examine the federal government and its programs, looking for ways to restructure even well-liked programs that Democrats have supported recently. As the House Republican Conference prepares a "ambitious" 100-day program this campaign season, the fervent conservative from Louisiana has drawn the group closer to Trump.

Earlier this week, Johnson stated, "Republicans in the House and Senate have a mandate." "The American people want that 'America First' agenda to be implemented and delivered."

Trump's House allies have already hinted that they will seek revenge for the legal issues he encountered while he was out of office. On Wednesday, the incoming president announced that he will name ardent supporter Rep. Matt Gaetz as his attorney general nominee.

While special counsel Jack Smith is wrapping up two federal investigations into Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and storing classified documents, Rep. Jim Jordan, the chair of the influential House Judiciary Committee, has stated that GOP lawmakers are "not taking anything off the table" in their plans to look into Smith.

As the new Congress gets underway, the Republicans might still maintain the majority by a small margin because certain contests have yet to be called. Johnson's ability to hold onto a majority in the early days of the new Congress may be hampered by Trump's decision to withdraw from the House for positions in his administration, which so far include Reps. Gaetz, Mike Waltz, and Elise Stefanik.

Gaetz resigned on Wednesday, taking effect immediately. By the time the new Congress meets on January 3, Johnson expressed his optimism that the position would be filled. Special elections are needed to replace House members, since Republicans have long controlled the congressional districts occupied by the three leaving members.

A highly functional House is likewise far from assured with the slim majority. Infighting characterized the two years of Republican House control as extreme conservative factions publicly defied their party leadership in an attempt to increase their influence and authority. The right wing of the party is powerful and ambitious following Trump's election victory, although Johnson — occasionally with Trump's assistance — generally suppressed open rebellions against his leadership.

Additionally, the Republican majority relies on a select few lawmakers who ran as moderates and won difficult elections. Whether they will support some of the most radical ideas promoted by Trump and his supporters is still up in the air.

Even as the party reflects on its election defeats, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is working to keep Democrats relevant to any legislation that passes Congress. This will need Democratic leaders to bring together more than 200 members.

Republicans win the Senate
After securing a resounding majority in the Senate, Republican leaders are already collaborating with Trump to validate his Cabinet selections. South Dakota Senator John Thune defeated Mitch McConnell, the Senate's longest-serving party leader, in an internal election on Wednesday.

Thune has previously criticized Trump, but during his quest for the presidency, he lauded the incoming president.

"This group of Republicans is unified. We're all on the same team," Thune declared. "We can't wait to work with our House colleagues to implement President Trump's agenda now that we have regained the majority."

Republicans will also have leeway when it comes to confirming Cabinet positions or, in the event of a vacancy, Supreme Court justices thanks to the GOP's 53-seat Senate majority. Not every one of those confirmations is assured. The announcement that Trump might name Gaetz as his attorney general stunned Republicans on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Even close Senate allies of Trump disassociated themselves from Gaetz, who was the subject of a House Ethics Committee probe into claims of drug and sexual abuse.

Trump urged on Sunday that any Republican leader permit him to nominate members of the cabinet without a vote during the Senate's recess. All of the candidates for leadership swiftly embraced the concept, despite the fact that it would represent a significant transfer of authority away from the Senate. The Democrats might oppose such a tactic.

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, and other Trump supporters on social media urged against choosing a typical Republican to head the Senate chamber. Thune was McConnell's top deputy, and in his confidential notes, McConnell referred to the previous president as a "despicable human being."

But McConnell made it plain that Republicans' days of opposing Trump on Capitol Hill are finished.