Washington — When President-elect Donald Trump returns to office next year with Republican majorities in the House and Senate, he’ll enjoy a unified government that’s expected to ease the way for his agenda and his Cabinet and other nominees.
But even with unified party control of government, approving a president’s agenda is no easy feat — and opposition from members of a president’s own party is expected, especially given the narrow majorities.
Getty Images / Trump ( Joe Raedle); Johnson (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc); Thune (Alex Wong)
Here’s what to know about unified government under a second Trump term:
A Republican-led House and Senate
The GOP secured narrow majorities in both chambers in the 2024 elections, with at least 52 seats in the Senate and 218 in the House. But both margins are extremely narrow and may even shrink temporarily as Trump selects GOP members of Congress for top administration posts. Still, he and allies are bullish about the mandate Republicans have been given with their election victories, pledging to move swiftly on his agenda.
“The only way we’re able to work quickly is because we have unified control of the Congress — both chambers now and the White House — beginning in January,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday, celebrating Republicans’ “decisive win across the nation.”
Trump also came into office in his first term with majorities in the House and Senate, with a larger majority in the House eight years ago, becoming the second Republican president since President Dwight D. Eisenhower to enjoy a trifecta upon taking office. But Republicans acknowledge that they squandered opportunities in the beginning of his first term and have vowed to move more quickly this time.
“We all look back and recognize that the Republican Party was not fully prepared for that moment, and precious time was wasted in the beginning of that Congress,” Johnson said. “We are not going to make those mistakes again; we will be ready on Day One.”
In the upper chamber, Sen. John Thune, elected this week to serve as majority leader in the next Congress after 17 years with Sen. Mitch McConnell at the helm, celebrated the GOP victory.
“Now the real work begins — delivering on our agenda,” Thune said.
Implementing Trump’s agenda
At the top of the list of pledges Trump made during his campaign is border security. He pledged to shut down the border on Day One and conduct mass deportations.
Johnson and Thune, too, say border security is a top priority. Earlier this year, a bipartisan group of senators negotiated the strictest immigration legislation in decades, but Senate Republicans ultimately blocked the package at Trump’s urging.
The Republican-led approach on border security next year, should it materialize, is expected to go further and is likely to face resistance from Democrats and even some within Trump’s party.
Republicans are also eager to enact new economic policies, including extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts that are set to expire in 2025, along with policies aimed at restoring U.S. energy dominance and cutting government spending waste.
With narrow majorities in both chambers, Trump’s key legislative priorities could still face obstacles. Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, who’s among a handful of Senate Republicans who have reliably broken with Trump in the past, outlined to CBS News that with 60 votes needed to end debate on most legislation in the Senate, “by definition, the Trump administration will need Democratic votes to do big things.”
“In recent history I’ve been quite good at working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle,” Young said, adding that he’s hopeful he can “help President Trump advance his agenda.”
For the Senate, the first task will be approving Trump’s nominations.
Confirming Trump’s Cabinet nominees
Some of Trump’s Cabinet selections are making waves across the political sphere, prompting questions from some GOP senators about whether some controversial nominees will be able to make it through Senate confirmation.
While some selections were expected, others have caught even Republicans by surprise. At the top of that category is Trump’s selection for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, a GOP firebrand who was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for allegations of sexual misconduct and obstruction.
Thune said the Senate’s priority at the start of the year will be confirming Trump’s nominees, pledging to oversee an aggressive schedule until the nominees are confirmed.
Meanwhile, Trump has suggested he’d like to get his eventual nominees in place through recess appointments, effectively bypassing the Senate’s confirmation process in a maneuver that hasn’t been utilized in a decade. High-ranking Republican senators, including Thune, have said that they will work to process Trump’s nominees at a rapid clip, while remaining open to recess nominations.
Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who lost a bid for leader to Thune, told reporters on Thursday that both the president’s authority to make recess appointments and the Senate’s advice and consent responsibilities are granted by the Constitution.
“The question is, how do you reconcile those two,” Cornyn said.
“I think we all would like for the President to be successful and I agree he’s had a mandate here,” Cornyn also said. “But we have a job to do, as well.”
The first 100 days
The first 100 days of a president’s term have historically been a yardstick to measure the new leader’s governing ability. It’s a practice that Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings, characterizes as “mythical.”
“It’s mythical because of Franklin Roosevelt,” she said. “And that’s also why it’s never happened again.”
Roosevelt, who quickly swore in his entire Cabinet and passed a slew of key legislation in the beginning of his term, had massive majorities in the House and Senate, paired with large Electoral College and popular vote victories. The unified control enabled Roosevelt to have “a spectacular 100 days,” Kamarck added.
Since then, the first 100 days has been the first benchmark at which the effectiveness of a president is judged: is the Cabinet appointed and confirmed by the Senate? What signature legislation has been enacted? During Trump’s first term, his first 100 days were marked by a pile of executive orders, a chaotic and lengthy effort to confirm his Cabinet and setbacks on his pledge to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and repeal the Affordable Care Act.
The dynamics are different as Trump prepares for his second term, with the party more unified behind him, a stronger relationship with lawmakers and a better grasp of the workings of government than when he first took office in 2017.
Speaking to the House Republican conference on Wednesday, Trump reveled in the shared GOP victory.
“Isn’t it nice to win?” Trump said. “It’s nice to win.”
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- United States Senate
- Donald Trump
- Republican Party
- U.S. House of Representatives
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