While control of the House is still uncertain, if it fell into the GOP column, Trump would once again begin his second presidency with a unified government behind him, and we would have an immediate sense of how his approach to governance might have changed and how much Republicans are lining up behind him. I think it’s worth remembering that another Trump candidacy, let alone the presidency, was far from a given at the end of his last term.

Trump’s first presidency was marked by growing tensions between his outsider, populist style and more established Republicans in Congress, particularly the Senate. This has caused some fits and starts in the implementation of an agenda – with Republicans sometimes seeming to govern in spite of Trump as much as with him or under his leadership. Even the end of his presidency was marked by Congress rushing back into session to override his veto of a bipartisan defense policy bill on New Year’s Day 2021.

Check this date: it was just a few days before the January 6 insurrection. After the events of January 6, seven Republican senators voted to impeach the former president, and others – like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – at least flirted with the move. Although it wasn’t a sharp rebuke from the party on paper, it seemed like many Republicans in Congress were eager to close the door on Trump’s Republican chapter. That was still the narrative after the party’s disappointing 2022 midterm elections, when Trump-backed candidates appeared to be floundering. The party then seemed faced with a choice about its future.

Yet from the start of the 2024 Republican primaries, it seemed that Republicans were resigned to making Trump their standard-bearer once again. Even as a presidential candidate, he has had significant influence on the Republican Party’s agenda, such as when he failed to reach a bipartisan agreement on the border earlier this year. And as we heard in his speech tonight, Trump will almost certainly take all the credit for what appears to be a great election cycle for the Republicans. His position as party leader may translate better to Congress this time around, between his professional experience and what appears to be a larger Republican majority in the Senate. After tonight, it feels like it’s Trump’s GOP, and we’re all living in it.