218 seats in kitty, Republicans get majority in House of Reps

Republicans have won enough seats to control the US House of Representatives, scoring an electoral trifecta controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House.

A House Republican victory in Arizona, alongside a win in slow-counting California earlier Wednesday, gave the GOP the 218 House victories that make up the majority. Republicans earlier gained control of the Senate from Democrats.

With hard-fought yet thin majorities, Republican leaders are envisioning a mandate to upend the federal government and swiftly implement Trump’s vision for the country.

The incoming president has promised to carry out the country’s largest-ever deportation operation, extend tax breaks, punish his political enemies, seize control of the federal government’s most powerful tools and reshape the US economy.

The GOP election victories ensure that Congress will be onboard for that agenda, and Democrats will be almost powerless to check it.

When Trump was elected president in 2016, Republicans also swept Congress, but he still encountered Republican leaders resistant to his policy ideas, as well as a Supreme Court with a liberal majority. Not this time.

When he returns to the White House, Trump will be working with a Republican Party that has been completely transformed by his “Make America Great Again” movement and a Supreme Court dominated by conservative justices, including three that he appointed.

Trump rallied House Republicans at a Capitol Hill hotel Wednesday. “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, He’s good, we got to figure something else,” Trump said to the room full of lawmakers who laughed in response.

Trump taps Gaetz for attorney general

• President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday named incendiary Republican US Representative Matt Gaetz to be his nominee for attorney general, selecting an ally who has faced Justice Department scrutiny to run the agency
• “Matt will end Weaponised Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organisations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department,” Trump said in a statement announcing the selection, which would be subject to confirmation by the Republican-majority Senate
• Matt Gaetz submitted his resignation Wednesday, effective immediately