Donald Trump’s sweeping return to the White House and the Republican Party in control of Congress promises a second term without institutional counterweights.
Republicans have retaken control of the U.S. Senate after flipping seats in West Virginia, Ohio and Montana. Several races for seats in the House of Representatives remain undecided, but its control is also currently leaning Republican.
If successful, that would put the party in control of the House, the Senate and the White House when Trump is sworn in in January. Therefore, Trump will find it easier to pass bills and have less pressure to compromise on major policies.
Presidential appointments, including federal judges and cabinet members, require Senate confirmation. A Senate majority aligned with the President speeds up confirmations and ensures that appointees who share the president’s philosophy are installed.
According to ABC, this will be the second time Trump has enjoyed such unity. Trump began his presidency in 2017 with a GOP-controlled House and Senate. Former presidents Barack Obama in 2009 and Bill Clinton in 1993 also began their White House stints with Democratic control in both the House and Senate.
Still, in the Trump, Obama and Clinton presidencies, at least one of the chambers flipped in the subsequent election.
Republican-dominated Congress will make it easier for Trump
A Republican-dominated Congress would allow Trump to push through his program. During his victory speech on Tuesday night Trump said that he’ll run his government on the motto: “Promises made, promises kept.”
Tax cuts, securing the southern border and taking a ”blowtorch” to federal regulations are at the top of the agenda if the GOP sweeps the White House and Congress.
Trump himself has promised mass deportations and retribution against his perceived enemies. Republicans want to push federal agencies out of Washington and to restaff the government workforce with the help of outside think tanks to bring the federal government “to heel,” it has been said.
House majority leader Steve Scalise, who has said he is running for the position again, told Reuters that Republicans aim to recreate the economic growth experienced early in Trump’s first term before the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020 and sent the economy into a steep decline.
During Trump’s first 100 days in office, Republicans will “lock in the Trump tax cuts,” “unleash American energy,” and “surge resources to the southern border,” among other measures, Scalise writes in a letter.
On energy, these policies include mandating lease sales, opening federal lands, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, “to increased energy exploration and production,” and repealing parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, including what Scalise calls “harmful slush funds.”
On immigration, Scalise says his party will “build the Trump border wall, acquire new detection technologies, bolster our border patrol and stop the flow of illegal immigration.”
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