"Isn't it nice to win?"
President-elect Trump's question received raucous applause from House Republicans during a Wednesday meeting on Capitol Hill. The former president, who is in Washington kick-starting his presidential transition, met with members of Congress and later President Biden, all the while making headlines for his latest controversial Cabinet picks.
Trump and Biden pledged a smooth transition of power during their meeting. It was a marked contrast from four years ago, when Trump contested the results of the election and broke a postelection tradition by never inviting Biden to the White House. The former president has yet to acknowledge his 2020 election loss.
"Politics is tough, and in many cases it's not a nice world, but it is a nice world today," Trump said Wednesday while the two leaders sat by the fireplace.
Trump said the discussion with Biden about wars in Ukraine and the Middle East was "really good." National security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Biden reinforced his view that it's in the U.S. national security interest to stand with Ukraine so "we don't end up getting dragged directly into a war."
On Capitol Hill, incoming Senate Majority Leader, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), sought to quell any doubts among the GOP that he can't work with Trump in the hours before his colleagues narrowly voted for him to lead them, insisting there was "no daylight" between him and the president-elect.
"This Republican team is united. We are one team, we are excited to reclaim the majority and get to work with our colleagues in the House to enact President Trump's agenda," Thune told reporters after the closed-door election on Wednesday. "We have a mandate from the American people — a mandate not only to clean up the mess left by the Biden-Harris-Schumer agenda, but also to deliver on President Trump's priorities."
The win sets up what will be a fascinating relationship between Trump and Thune, writes The Hill's Alexander Bolton. Only hours after Thune locked down his votes, he immediately found himself in a tough spot when Trump nominated conservative Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, now a Republican,to serve as attorney general and director of national intelligence, respectively. The announcements immediately sparked controversy, with some Republican senators expressing surprise or outright opposition.
One Republican senator said "there's a fair amount of skepticism" about whether the new Senate majority leader can be counted on to back the president-elect without waffling.
But another senator predicted the conference would rally behind the South Dakotan.
"The conference will move on, and John [Thune] will be a good unifier," the senator said.
House Republicans locked in their majority and top leadership positions for the looming 119th Congress, as the conference readies its slim majority to legislate under full GOP control of Washington. GOP lawmakers unanimously nominated Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to retain the gavel, sending his candidacy to the House floor for a full vote in January.
Behind Johnson, Republicans re-elected Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) as majority leader, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) as majority whip. The Hill's Mychael Schnell breaks down the other members of the GOP leadership.
Meanwhile, hard-line conservatives struck a tentative deal with House Republicans concerned about chaos in the chamber, agreeing to raise the threshold to force a vote to oust the Speaker in exchange for concessions on rule changes. The deal would eliminate the threat of any one member triggering the kind of snap vote that resulted in the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
In exchange for that concession, other members would drop the proposed rules changes — spearheaded by those in the Main Street Caucus — that aimed to punish members for rebelling against the majority of the party in ways that risked grinding legislative activity to a halt. One proposed amendment from Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) would have consequences for members who support a "motion to vacate" the Speaker, removing them from committees.
"We need to have cohesion and unity. We need to have parameters set," Van Orden told The Hill in an interview on Wednesday morning, before the deal was struck. "If we don't act boldly and decisively, then we have no business governing. And that is a flag that I'm planting in the ground."
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