(Washington) Having added the House of Representatives on Wednesday to his electoral victories in the White House and the Senate, Donald Trump will become in January one of the most powerful presidents in the history of the United States, with checks and balances restricted.
Posted at 4:02 p.m.
Sébastien BLANC
Agence France-Presse
Five main points guarantee it solid foundations:
Democratic legitimacy
Wednesday afternoon, with more than three million votes ahead in the ballots still being counted, Donald Trump seems on track to win the popular vote against Kamala Harris. He will then be the first Republican president in 20 years to achieve this feat.
The 78-year-old man has already won a clear majority in the electoral college, with 312 voters against 226 for his defeated rival. He notably achieved a grand slam in the seven key states supposed to be the most contested.
“America has given us a powerful and unprecedented mandate,” he said on November 6, in his victory speech.
Unlike 2016 when Hillary Clinton obtained more votes than him, Donald Trump will be able to rely on this popular legitimacy to stave off the challenge.
Read “Who Voted for Trump?” »
An Allied Congress
After eight days of counting the votes cast during the historic election of November 5, the Republican Party retained its majority in the House of Representatives, according to American media projections on Wednesday.
The Trump camp had already regained control of the Senate, the upper house of Congress, last week. This crucial organ of federal power has very important prerogatives, particularly in the appointment or dismissal of key figures in the executive, or even in the confirmation of federal magistrates.
Note that the president-elect has successfully worked to stifle any dissent within the Republican Party, which now espouses his “Make America Great Again” line.
By controlling the entire Congress, Donald Trump will make it easier for himself to pass the budget and the federal laws implementing his program.
A new immunity
Donald Trump will be the first president to take office with a comfortable dose of immunity while carrying out his duties.
This stems from a historic ruling by the Supreme Court, handed down on 1is July in the file of federal prosecutions targeting the former president for his illicit attempts to reverse the results of the election won in 2020 by Joe Biden.
This decision brought respite to Donald Trump, who escaped three of the four resounding criminal trials he feared this year. Having become head of the executive again, he will benefit from a completely clear judicial horizon.
He could notably escape any sentencing in New York in the case of hidden payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and it is expected that the special prosecutor Jack Smith, charged with investigating the illegal attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election, ends his prosecution.
A government of the faithful
Then a political novice, Donald Trump accepted, at the start of his first term in 2017, to be surrounded by seasoned officials with experience in public affairs, a way of reassuring foreign chancelleries.
Faced with the sometimes unpredictable behavior of the leader, these moderating elements were nicknamed the “adults in the room”.
For his second term, the septuagenarian is careful to surround himself with loyalists, notably rewarding those who helped him in his campaign, including billionaires Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, whom he charged with preparing draconian cuts in the federal budget.
In recent days, he has chosen or appointed other close associates to key positions, such as Kristi Noem at Homeland Security, Pete Hegseth at Defense, Mike Waltz at National Security or Matt Gaetz at Justice.
Note that Donald Trump, who spent his first term attacking the sovereign decisions of the United States central bank, will have the opportunity to appoint in 2026 the successor to the current head of the Fed, Jerome Powell.
A revamped Supreme Court
After having anchored the Supreme Court of the United States in conservatism during his first term, by appointing three judges out of nine, Donald Trump will now be able to cement this anchoring over time.
Two conservative pillars of the high court, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, aged 76 and 74 respectively, could indeed consider stepping down and letting the president appoint – for life – two significantly younger replacements.
The highest American judicial body would then retain its conservative majority possibly for decades.
