Stream news from FOX 35

WASHINGTON (AP) – Republicans won enough seats to control the U.S. House of Representatives, completing their rise to power and securing their hold on the U.S. government alongside President-elect Donald Trump.

A Republican victory in the House of Representatives in Arizona, coupled with a slow-count victory in California earlier Wednesday, gave the GOP the 218 House victories needed to form a majority. The Republicans had already taken control of the Senate at the expense of the Democrats.

With narrow but hard-fought majorities, Republican leaders now plan to overhaul the federal government and quickly implement Trump’s vision for the country. The new president has pledged to carry out the largest deportation operation ever, expand tax cuts, punish his political opponents, take control of the federal government’s most powerful tools and reshape the American economy. The Republican Party’s victories ensure that Congress will support this agenda, and that Democrats will be largely powerless to oppose it.

When Trump was elected president in 2016, Republicans also took control of Congress, but he nonetheless faced resistance from some Republican leaders, as well as a liberal-majority Supreme Court. This time things are different.

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

Trump rallied House Republicans at a Capitol Hill hotel Wednesday morning, marking his first return to Washington since the election.

“I suspect I won’t run again unless you say, ‘He’s good, we’ve got to find something else,'” Trump told a roomful of lawmakers, who laughed in response.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who won the Republican Conference nomination to remain president with Trump’s support, has expressed a desire to take a “blowtorch” to the federal government. He’s looking for ways to revise even popular programs Democrats have championed in recent years. The Louisiana Republican has brought the House Republican Conference closer to Trump during the election season as they prepare an “ambitious” 100-day agenda.

“Republicans in the House and Senate have a mandate,” Johnson said earlier this week. “The American people want us to implement and deliver on this ‘America First’ agenda.”

Trump’s allies in the House are already signaling plans to retaliate over legal challenges Trump faced while out of office. On Wednesday, the new president announced he would nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz, a fierce loyalist, to be attorney general.

MORE STORIES:

Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, said Republican lawmakers are “taking nothing off the table” in their plans to investigate special counsel Jack Smith, who ends two federal investigations into Trump for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

However, with some elections still uncalled, Republicans could hold a majority of just a few seats when the new Congress convenes. Trump’s decision to remove House members, such as Reps. Gaetz, Mike Waltz and Elise Stefanik, from positions in his administration could complicate Johnson’s ability to maintain a majority in the first days of the new Congress.

Gaetz submitted his resignation on Wednesday, effective immediately. Johnson said he hoped the seat could be filled by the time the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3. Replacements of House members require special elections, and the congressional districts held by all three outgoing members have been Republican for years.

With a slim majority, the functioning of the House remains uncertain. The past two years of Republican control in the House of Representatives have been marked by infighting, as the harshest conservative factions sought influence by openly challenging their party’s leadership. While Johnson, sometimes with Trump’s help, has largely subdued rebellions against his leadership, the party’s right wing is now ascendant and ambitious following Trump’s election victory.

The Republican majority also relies on a small group of lawmakers who won tough elections by running as moderates. It remains to be seen whether they will support some of the more extreme proposals pushed by Trump and his allies.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, meanwhile, is working to keep Democrats relevant in any legislation Congress passes. That effort will depend on whether Democratic leaders can muster more than 200 members, even as the party reflects on its electoral defeats.

In the Senate, Republican Party leaders, fresh from their victory, are already working with Trump to confirm his Cabinet choices. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota won an internal election Wednesday to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history.

Thune, who has criticized Trump in the past, praised the new president during his campaign for the leadership election.

“This Republican team is united. We are one team,” Thune said. “We are excited to reclaim the majority and work with our House colleagues to implement President Trump’s agenda.”

The 53-seat Republican majority in the Senate ensures that Republicans will have room to maneuver when it comes to confirming Cabinet positions or Supreme Court justices should a vacancy arise. All confirmations are not guaranteed. Republicans were skeptical Wednesday when news broke that Trump would nominate Gaetz to be attorney general. Even some close Trump allies in the Senate have distanced themselves from Gaetz, who has been the subject of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use.

Nonetheless, Trump demanded Sunday that any Republican leader allow him to make administrative appointments without a vote while the Senate is in recess. Such a move would shift power away from the Senate, although all leadership contenders quickly embraced the idea. Democrats could potentially oppose such a move.

Meanwhile, Trump supporters on social media, including Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, opposed the idea of ​​choosing a traditional Republican to lead the Senate. Thune worked as a top lieutenant to McConnell, who once called Trump a “despicable human being.”

However, McConnell made clear that on Capitol Hill, the days of Republican resistance to Trump are over.

STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 35 ORLANDO: