Republicans win 218 House seats giving Trump and party control of US government

The Republican Party has won enough seats to control the US House, completing the party’s sweep into power and securing their hold on the American government alongside president-elect Donald Trump.

A House Republican victory in Arizona, alongside a win in slow-counting California earlier on Wednesday, gave the Republicans the 218 House victories that make up the majority.

The Republicans have also gained control of the Senate from the Democrats.

With hard-fought, yet thin majorities, Republican leaders are envisioning a mandate to upend the federal government and swiftly implement Mr Trump’s vision for the country.

The incoming president has promised to carry out the country’s largest-ever deportation operation, extend tax breaks, punish his political enemies, seize control of the federal government’s most powerful tools and reshape the US economy.

The Republican election victories ensure that Congress will be onboard for that agenda, and the Democrats will be almost powerless to check it.

When Mr Trump was first elected president in 2016, the Republican Party also swept Congress.

Despite that, Mr Trump still encountered Republican leaders resistant to his policy ideas, as well as a Supreme Court with a liberal majority. Not this time.

When he returns to the White House, Mr Trump will be working with a Republican Party that has been completely transformed by his Make America Great Again movement and a Supreme Court dominated by conservative justices, including three that he appointed.

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

“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s good, we got to figure something else,’” Mr Trump said to the room full of politicians, who laughed in response.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who, with Mr Trump’s endorsement won the Republican Conference’s nomination to stay on as speaker next year, has talked of taking a “blowtorch” to the federal government and its programmes, eyeing ways to overhaul even popular programmes championed by the Democrats in recent years.

The Louisiana Republican, an ardent conservative, has pulled the House Republican Conference closer to Mr Trump during the campaign season as they prepare an “ambitious” 100-day agenda.

“Republicans in the House and Senate have a mandate,” Mr Johnson said earlier this week.

“The American people want us to implement and deliver that ‘America First’ agenda.”

Mr Trump’s allies in the House are already signalling they will seek retribution for the legal troubles he faced while out of office.

The incoming president on Wednesday said he would nominate Matt Gaetz, a fierce loyalist, for attorney general.

On Thursday Mr Trump announced Doug Collins, a former congressman from Georgia, as his choice to run the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform,” Mr Trump said in a statement.

Mr Collins is a chaplain in the US Air Force Reserve Command.

The Republican served in Congress from 2013 to 2021, and he helped defend Mr Trump during his first impeachment process.