Republicans are set to take full control of the U.S. government by the third week in January, with President-elect Donald Trump in the White House and the party holding majorities in the Senate and now the House of Representatives, where late vote counting put it over the top on Wednesday.
"Republicans in the House and Senate have a mandate," newly reelected House Speaker Mike Johnson said earlier this week. "The American people want us to implement and deliver that 'America First' agenda" espoused by Trump.
Trump will be sworn in as the country’s 47th president on January 20, two weeks after the new Congress has been seated.
Trump, 78, campaigned on a sweeping agenda that Democrats will be largely powerless to stop unless joined by a handful of Republican defectors in Congress on any specific issue that would undercut the party’s slim majorities in both chambers.
Republicans will have a 53-47 edge in the Senate, and the tie-breaking vote of Vice President-elect JD Vance in the event of a 50-50 stalemate on any legislative proposal. Republicans have secured at least 218 seats in the 435-member House, pending the outcome of nine undecided elections for two-year terms. The party won a seat in the Southwestern state of Arizona on Wednesday to cement its majority.
During his bid to win a second nonconsecutive four-year term, Trump called for the massive deportation of millions of undocumented migrants living in the United States to their home countries, an extension and expansion of 2017 tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of 2025, further deregulation of businesses, a curb on climate controls, and prosecution of his political opponents — people he calls “the enemy within.”
Senator John Thune of South Dakota, newly elected by his fellow Republicans as the Senate majority leader, said, "This Republican team is united. We are on one team. We are excited to reclaim the majority and to get to work with our colleagues in the House to enact President Trump's agenda."
Trump nominates loyalists
Trump has swiftly named an array of political loyalists to key Cabinet positions. They remained as vocal supporters during his four years out of office, and most of them are likely to win quick Senate approval after confirmation hearings, as is the bipartisan tradition in Congress when a new president takes office. They will replace officials President Joe Biden selected after he defeated Trump in the 2020 election.
Trump has also called on Senate Republican leaders to allow him to make “recess appointments,” which could occur when the chamber is not in session and would erase the need for time-consuming and often contentious confirmation hearings.
Despite the likelihood that most of his nominees will be approved, Trump this week named three who immediately drew disparaging assessments from several Democrats and some Republicans for their perceived lack of credentials.
They are former Representative Matt Gaetz as attorney general; Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman turned Republican as director of national intelligence, and Pete Hegseth, a former junior military officer and Fox News host as defense secretary.
The blowback presages tough confirmation fights for the three in the Senate, which reviews the appointments of top-level officials and then votes to confirm them, or on occasion, rejects the nominations of incoming presidents and forces the White House to make another choice.
On Thursday, Trump nominated former presidential candidate and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services; former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton to be Manhattan's top federal prosecutor; and former Representative Doug Collins to be secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Trump also nominated one of his personal criminal defense attorneys, Todd Blanche, to be deputy attorney general, and another of his attorneys, D. John Sauer, to be solicitor general.
Controversy surrounds Gaetz
At an event Thursday night at Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, Trump said he intended to nominate North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to lead the Interior Department.
The appointment of Gaetz, 42, could prove particularly problematic, with some senators openly questioning whether he can win a 51-vote majority to assume the government’s top law enforcement position. A House ethics committee probe was in the final stages of investigating whether he engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use when he announced his resignation from the chamber late Wednesday, ending the probe.
The Justice Department he hopes to lead had already decided not to pursue criminal charges. Gaetz has denied all wrongdoing.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press NOW,” John Bolton, one of Trump’s first-term national security advisers who since has become a vocal critic, said Gaetz’s appointment “must be the worst nomination for a Cabinet position in American history.”
Bolton added that Gabbard’s nomination was “hilarious” and “second worst.”
“I don’t think it’s a serious nomination for the attorney general,” said Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. “This one was not on my bingo card.”
Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said she was “shocked” that Trump chose Gaetz, while another Republican senator, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, questioned whether Gaetz could be confirmed, adding, “I need to think about that one.”
An incoming freshman Democratic senator, Andrew Kim, said he did not need to consider more information at a confirmation hearing to know that he would vote against Gaetz.
Gaetz is also disliked by some Republican colleagues for his leading role last year in a successful effort to oust a fellow Republican, Kevin McCarthy, from his job as House speaker, the lead position in the chamber and second in line to the presidency after the vice president.
Trump heralded his nomination of Gaetz, newly elected to a fifth term in the House, saying he had “distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice” and would “root out systemic corruption” at the agency.
Experience questioned
Gabbard, 43, has been attacked for her lack of direct experience in intelligence and accused of disseminating pro-Russian disinformation. If confirmed, she will be tasked with overseeing 18 U.S. intelligence agencies. She won over Trump with her switch from being a one-time Democratic House member from Hawaii to changing parties and staunchly advocating for his election.
She prepped Trump for his only debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat he defeated in the November 5 election.
Critics have assailed Hegseth, a 44-year-old decorated former military officer, as someone who lacks managerial experience in the military or business world. A weekend anchor on Fox News, he has voiced his opinions on military operations, including his opposition to women serving in combat roles, saying they lack as much physical strength as men. He has lobbied Trump to pardon military service members accused of war crimes.
Hegseth is certain to face near universal opposition from Senate Democrats voting on his confirmation, and some Republicans are expressing concern.
A descendant of the Kennedy family political dynasty, Kennedy, 70, has been one of the country’s most prominent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists for years.
At a rally in October, Trump indicated that if he was reelected, he would let Kennedy oversee a public health portfolio. Last week, Kennedy said he would “immediately” begin studying vaccine safety. He also has pledged to formally recommend states and municipalities remove fluoride from public water.
An attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell, Clayton, 58, will be nominated to be the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York — perhaps better known as the sheriff of Wall Street.
Although the office is often responsible for policing financial fraud, Clayton himself does not have any prosecutorial experience. While at the SEC, Clayton, a political independent, developed a reputation for trying to create consensus with the agency’s Democratic commissioners.
Doug Collins, 58, served in Congress from 2013 to 2021 and unsuccessfully ran for election to be a U.S. senator for Georgia in 2020. He is currently a chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve Command.
Blanche, 50, represented Trump in several of the criminal cases against the former president. The attorney played a key role in Trump's defense teams in both the Manhattan hush money case, which led to a conviction earlier this year, and the federal classified documents prosecution, which a judge dismissed this past summer. Blanche also played a role in the federal case regarding the January 6, 2021, attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
And Sauer, 50, who previously served as the solicitor general of Missouri, successfully defended Trump before the Supreme Court in a case that gave Trump and all future U.S. presidents vast immunity from prosecution for what are deemed official acts.
Burgum, 67, grew up in a small town in North Dakota and earned a master’s in business administration from Stanford University. He got into software and led Great Plains Software until Microsoft bought it in 2001, for $1.1 billion. He then tried his hand in politics, running for governor and winning on his first try.
The president-elect’s first choices for high-level positions in his nascent administration have won broad acceptance from fellow Republicans, including his co-campaign manager Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida as secretary of state and Representative Mike Waltz of Florida as national security adviser.
Trump returned triumphantly to Washington on Wednesday, pledging a smooth transition of power in January as he met for two hours at the White House with Biden, his longtime political rival.
