The Japan Times - Republicans complete power takeover with House majority

After more than a week of vote counting, CNN and NBC projected that the Republicans had reached the 218 seats needed to retain their majority in the 435-seat lower chamber, having already secured control over the Senate.

"It is a beautiful morning in Washington. It is a new day in America," said House Speaker Mike Johnson, who held a press conference to celebrate victory Tuesday before the result was official.

"The sun is shining, and that's a reflection about how we all feel. This is a very, very important moment for the country and we do not take it lightly."

Trump triumphed in each of the seven battleground states in the November 5 presidential election and also won the national popular vote, with preliminary figures showing him ahead of Democratic Party challenger Kamala Harris by 3.2 million votes.

Having control of both chambers of Congress will clear the way for him to confirm his nominations for key positions in his administration and will also allow him to push through his radical agenda of mass deportations, tax cuts and slashing regulations.

"We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY!" Trump wrote on the X social media network on Sunday, referring to the need for the Republican-majority Senate to quickly approve his cabinet picks.

He is also seen by analysts as facing fewer judicial constraints than previous presidents, with his nominations to the Supreme Court during his first term, from 2017-2021, having given the high court a heavily conservative tilt.

The scale and strength of Trump's electoral comeback has sent shockwaves through the defeated Democratic Party, which has been picking over the reasons for its failure.

After a campaign promising a crackdown on immigration and "retribution" for his opponents, Trump improved his scores compared to 2020 across almost all categories of voters, with the most significant gains among Hispanic men.

Exit polls after last Tuesday's vote showed that voters' top concerns were the economy and inflation that spiked under outgoing President Joe Biden, as well as immigration.

- Trump 2.0 agenda -

The Republicans' clean sweep of the presidency and Congress is not unusual, with Trump in his first term and Democratic predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama also benefiting from majorities at the start of their presidencies.

That has been the pattern since the turn of the 20th century, with 16 of 21 presidents in the last 125 years having control in the House and Senate for the first two years of their terms, data from the Pew Research Center shows.

There has only been one president since 1969 -- Jimmy Carter -- who held on to his majority beyond the midterm elections, which are held two years after the presidential vote, the data shows -- offering hope to Democrats in 2026.

But the loss of the House extinguishes any remaining hope among Democrats that they might be able to stand in the way of Trump's agenda for now.

Trump has promised more tax cuts, a gutting of environmental and other regulations, as well as a crackdown on crime, immigration and his political opponents.

He has begun to assemble his second administration by naming campaign manager Susie Wiles to serve as his White House chief of staff, as well as appointing loyalists such as Senator Marco Rubio and Congressman Mike Waltz to his national security team.

Wiles is the first woman to be named to the high-profile role.

"We have an agenda we've been planning for the first 100 days," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters, "to lower food costs, to lower energy costs, to secure America's border, to get this economy moving again, so those families who have been struggling can finally get back on their feet."

K.Yamaguchi--JT