On election night, Donald Trump repeated the phrase: “Promises made, promises kept.”

Today, the Republicans have officially taken control of Congress and its “promises” are much easier to keep.

In Washington political parlance, a “trio government” is when the president’s party also controls both houses of Congress – the House of Representatives and the Senate.

This control is now that of the Republican Party of Donald Trump.

Single-party control was once common, but in recent decades it has become rarer and shorter. Often, the ruling party loses seats when midterm congressional elections occur two years later.

Both Trump and Joe Biden enjoyed a winning trio in their first two years in the White House, but they also understood that having such control does not guarantee that a president can get what he wants .

In his first two years, Trump passed a signature tax bill – cutting corporate taxes from 35% to 21% and cutting some personal taxes.

But with some members of his own party reluctant to his surprise rise to the top in 2016, he has struggled to achieve other goals.

His plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act (known as Obamacare) failed when a senator from his own party, John McCain, refused to vote for it. He also failed to pass an infrastructure bill as he had promised.

In his first two years, with Democrats controlling the House and Senate, Biden managed to pass the American Rescue Plan, the Investment and Jobs Act, and the Chip and Science Act . But he, too, had to significantly scale back his sending and investment plans — billed as the Build Back Better plan — after opposition from one of his own senators.

A major obstacle to full control by either party is that Senate bills require a three-fifths majority, or 60 votes, to bypass the filibuster, which allows senators to delay legislation by keeping the debate open. This means that when one party has a simple majority in the Senate, it must go to the other party to pass a bill.

Even with a healthy majority in the Senate this time around, Trump won’t have the magic 60 seats that would allow him to defeat the opposition’s attempts to delay legislation.

And on Wednesday, Senate Republicans chose John Thune as majority leader over Rick Scott of Florida, the clear front-runner in the Trump camp, a sign that some lawmakers may reassert their independence (Trump has not officially endorsed Scott).

That said, a trio, if intelligently managed, opens the door to the possibility of major legislative initiatives.

Trump’s power advantage could be key to delivering on his big promises such as the largest migrant deportation in history, drastic tariffs on foreign imports and rolling back environmental protections.

Using legislation to achieve these goals will make such plans much more difficult to overturn in court – something Donald Trump suffered during his first term when he made extensive use of executive orders that were regularly and often successfully challenged .

The legal landscape has also changed in Trump’s favor.

The landmark achievement of his first term was appointing three conservatives to the Supreme Court, cementing a two-thirds majority for perhaps decades to come.

He also appointed more than four dozen judges to federal appeals courts, tilting several circuits toward a more conservative orientation.

The Republican majority in the Senate is also a key advantage.

Trump will be able to more easily get his nominees for administrative posts approved, something he struggled with in 2017, when internal resistance to him within the Republican Party was still significant.

All this bodes well for the next two busy, even turbulent, years. But, as recent history indicates, these three trios don’t last very long. The new administration will want to take action.