Donald Trump will begin his presidency in January with the rare luxury of control by his party of both chambers of Congress, raising the prospect that he might be able to dislodge some of the gridlock that has paralyzed Capitol Hill.



It will be the first time since Barack Obama suffered his midterm “shellacking” in 2010 at the hands of the Tea Party that one-party rule has returned to Washington. In the first instance, it raises the chances of Trump being able to fulfill some of his promises to his supporters – that he will act as an agent of change, putting, as he said in his victory speech on Wednesday morning, “millions of people to work”.

With Republican control of the House and Senate, Trump can hope to act quickly on legislation of wide appeal to conservatives, notably cutting taxes and pumping dollars into job-creating infrastructure projects. Those objectives were central to the billionaire’s bid for the presidency and are popular among congressional Republicans and their voters.

But the president-elect should not expect the early days of his administration to be plain sailing. Though Democrats might come onboard for infrastructure spending, they are likely to vociferously oppose tax cuts that benefit the rich.

They still have one wild card in their hand: the Senate filibuster. If it is wielded, the party in power must receive 60 votes for legislation to pass. That number remains beyond the reach of Republicans.

“We are going to see the use of the filibuster by Democrats to a degree that’s unprecedented,” said Ross Baker, professor of political science at Rutgers University. “Republicans didn’t offer Obama a honeymoon in 2009 and nor will the Democrats for Trump.”

Democrats will fight to the last ditch on Obamacare Ross Baker, Rutgers University

The filibuster is almost certainly going to be invoked by Democratic senators in an attempt to save the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, which is seen on the left not only as a vital part of the sitting president’s legacy but also as a political line in the sand.

“Democrats will fight to the last ditch on that,” Baker said.

Other major battles, potentially involving the filibuster, lie ahead over other core Trump pledges, notably his threat to round up 11 million undocumented immigrants, to build a wall along the Mexican border and to introduce “extreme” entry controls for Muslims.

The new president, backed by Republican leaders in Congress, is likely to try to find a way around any such blockage by invoking the so-called budget reconciliation provision, which allows reforms to be put into finance bills with just 51 Senate votes required.

Still, Trump will face challenges from his own party, given his frosty relationship with many top Republicans and widespread disapproval on the right of several of his policy stances, including his aversion to trade deals and his contentious views on immigration. His relationship with the House speaker, Paul Ryan, is close to glacial. In the Senate, such an influential figure as Lindsey Graham let it be known on Twitter that he did not vote for his own party’s nominee.

Should Trump run into the familiar roadblock of an intransigent Congress, he does have the final resort adopted by Obama: to bypass Congress by using his executive powers. The continued Republican dominance of the Senate will come in extremely handy, though, when it comes to picking a ninth US supreme court justice to lock in conservative dominance over the highest court for possibly a generation to come.

Obama has found that the greatest threat to his executive orders has been the court system, which has put paid to his efforts to combat climate change and extend legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants. With the nation’s top judicial panel leaning his way, Trump is likely to suffer no such impediment.

Likely appointments

In terms of key appointments, Trump’s win presents an opportunity for a cadre of loyalists who backed the candidate when few others would.

During his idiosyncratic run for the White House, when even campaign insiders expected him to lose, Trump put little emphasis on a transition effort. He is also an ideological blank slate, having shifted positions on virtually every issue.

That means personnel could in effect become policy, with cabinet secretaries and officials likely to have surprising latitude in an administration led by a president who has shown very little interest in policy nuance.

Reports widely tip Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chair who has stood behind Trump since he gained the nomination, as favorite to be White House chief of staff.

Other loyalists could be in position to take top cabinet posts. In his victory speech, Trump mentioned three former rivals for the nomination: New Jersey governor Chris Christie, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and neurosurgeon Ben Carson. All could get major roles. Christie even appeared on stage with Trump, notably the closest person to the president-elect, outside members of his family.

Although Christie has been tainted by his proximity to the Bridgegate scandal, his appearance was a clear signal that Trump will not be deterred by the convictions of four top Christie aides for the politically motivated shutting down of lanes on the George Washington Bridge.

Vice-President-elect Mike Pence is likely to have a major portfolio. It was reported over the summer that Donald Trump Jr had contacted the Ohio governor, John Kasich, a defiant rival, and offered to make him the most powerful vice-president in history. Now that role may fall to Pence, an ardent social conservative who served as governor of Indiana.



Another figure likely to take a major role is former House speaker Newt Gingrich. A longtime advocate for Trump, and with Christie one of the final candidates for running mate, Gingrich is widely reported to be a contender to become secretary of state.



Trump is also likely to look to the business world. Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker who oversaw Trump’s finance efforts, is well positioned to be treasury secretary. Other potential cabinet figures from the business world include the fracking mogul Harold Hamm.

The president-elect has also floated the 2008 vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin for a cabinet position. The Alaskan could become secretary of the interior or secretary of energy. Her own transition from politics to reality television prefigured Trump taking the opposite path. Now she may follow him back to the fray.