When Donald Trump moves into the White House for the second time in January, he’ll have plenty of friends in Congress and fewer — if any — guardrails.
Votes are still being counted, but Republicans have flipped control of the Senate to their side with several key states yet to be called leaning in their favor. The House of Representatives will take longer to come into focus, with 58 seats still uncalled, but GOP candidates are performing well in tough races, and party leaders are feeling optimistic that they might even expand their narrow majority in the chamber.
Those results mean Trump will be able to get judges, Cabinet nominees and other executive appointments confirmed in the Senate without much pushback — even for controversial picks like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk. The new class of Republicans coming to Washington, like Ohio’s Bernie Moreno and Montana’s Tim Sheehy, are decisively of the MAGA mold and eager to help Trump with his agenda. If Republicans are able to pick up two or more of the outstanding races, in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin, or Arizona, they’ll have the largest GOP majority in nearly a decade.