WASHINGTON – After a resounding electoral victorydelivering what the president-elect Donald Trump and Republicans call for “mandate” to governa delicate political question arises: will there be room for dissent in the American Congress?

Trump launches challenge even before taking office challenge the Senatein particular, to dare to challenge him on the nominations of Matt Gaetz, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other controversial choices for his Cabinet and administrative positions.

The promise of unified governmentwith the victory of the Republican Party over the White House and Republican majorities in the House and Senateis giving way to a more complex political reality as congressional leaders once again confront what it means to align with Trump’s agenda.

“This is going to be a red alert moment for American democracy,” Sen. Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, said on CNN after Trump nominated Gaetz for attorney general.

Trump returns to the White House height of his political power, having won both the electoral college and the popular vote for his party for the first time in decades. The trifecta in Washington offers a tantalizing political opportunity to Republicans, opening a universe of political and policy priorities — from tax cuts to mass evictions to gutting regulatory and federal bureaucracy to Trump’s promises to exact revenge and prosecute his perceived enemies and pardon those who attacked the Capitol. January 6, 2021.

But for Congress, it’s also a potentially existential moment, one to test whether its status as a co-equal branch of the U.S. government can withstand a second Trump administration.

“One possible future for Congress is that it becomes a rubber stamp,” said Phillip Wallach, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute who writes extensively about Congress.

Wallach said the threat to Congress is on his mind, but he also thinks it would be more pronounced if Republicans had won larger majorities. In fact, the House could end up with fewer seats, and the Senate’s 53-seat advantage, while greater than the simple majority needed to confirm nominees, can hardly be considered a mandate.

Besides, “they’re not wimps,” he said of elected lawmakers. “There’s no reason for them to turn into a doormat.”

Washington has changed since Trump’s first term. Congress has been purged of its fiercest critics. At the same time, the Supreme Court has shifted radically to the right, with three justices appointed by Trump and a majority decision this summer granting the president broad immunity prosecutions.

Trump’s Cabinet picks pose the most important first test for Congress.

While Trump’s choice of senator. Marco RubioR-Fla., for secretary of state is expected to have fairly broad support, including from Democrats, others like Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard for the Director of National Intelligence and Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense are drawing greater scrutiny.

The choice of Gaetz, a fierce Trump loyalist who has spoken of a widespread shake-up of the Justice Department, is all the more troubling for senators because of a House ethics investigation for alleged sexual misconduct and illegal drug use. He denies the allegations but tendered his resignation from Congress upon his appointment, thus ending the investigation.

Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would consider Gaetz’s nomination, called on the House to “preserve and share his report” with the panel.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican member of the Judiciary Committee, said he expects “all” information about the nominees will be made available.

Other Republicans in the House and Senate have sided with Gaetz, supporting his efforts to go after the Justice Department for what they see as perceived bias, particularly over his prosecutions against Trump for trying to cancel the 2020 elections before the attack on the Capitol and for hoarding classified documents.

“I know Democrats are clutching their pearls right now, and they’re very, very upset about everything,” Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said on Fox News.

“But if you think about how they’ve weaponized the DOJ, it’s a situation that needs serious reform,” he said. “It’s President Trump’s prerogative to choose who he wants to nominate.”

New Senate Republican leader John Thune said confirming Trump’s nominees would be a priority next year and that senators “should expect an aggressive timeline until his nominees are confirmed “.

The Trump campaign’s decision not to engage, thus far, in the traditional transition process complicates the situation for senators, having refused to sign agreements with the federal government that would initiate background checks on nominees by the FBI, among other standard steps before confirmation hearings.

Senators could be forced to consider candidates who were not selected using traditional methods.

Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., a former member of the House Intelligence Committee, worries that Americans are being left in the dark about their top officials. “People have a right to know who runs critical aspects of their government,” he said.

In stepping up his demands on the Senate, Trump suggested that it consider what is known as playtime meeting of its nominees – a highly unorthodox request that essentially asks the Senate to abandon its constitutional role of advice and consent and allow its nominees to be installed without a vote.

Wallach said if senators chose this path, it would be “an act of extreme institutional self-sabotage.”

Congress has been here before, during the first Trump administration, when the White House tested the limits of its executive power.

One of the most significant confrontations of the previous Trump era took place over the border wall promise, when the White House attempted to divert funds approved by Congress for projects to build military bases and reassign them to the wall between the United States and Mexico.

The Congress largely won this victory, after a long struggle, but it is about to be tested in new ways.

Trump plans a series of executive orders on the first day of the new administration to launch his mass deportations and other priorities.

Trump allies, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and influential commentator Charlie Kirk, have warned of consequences in the form of primary challenges for senators who fail to confirm nominees.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Trump’s on-again, off-again ally, said he typically confirms a president’s nominees, regardless of party, and intends to vote yes again .

“I consider this matter closed,” he said.

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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.