George W. Bush issues a statement congratulating Trump

While control of the House of Representatives is still up in the air, if Trump were to fall into the Republican column, he would be starting his second presidency over with a unified government behind him, and we would immediately get a sense of how his approach of governance could look like. have changed and how close Republicans are to him. I think it’s worth reminding ourselves that another Trump candidacy, let alone a presidency, was far from a given at the end of his last term.

Trump’s first presidency was marked by some growing pains between his outsider, populist style and more establishment Republicans in Congress, especially in the Senate. That caused some fits and starts in implementing an agenda — with Republicans at times appearing to govern as well in spite of Trump as with him or under his leadership. Even the end of his presidency was marked by Congress diving back into session to override his veto of a bipartisan defense policy bill on New Year’s Day 2021.

Check that date: it was just a few days before the January 6 uprising. After the events of January 6, seven Republican senators voted to impeach the former president, and others — like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — at least flirted with it. While it wasn’t a full-throated rebuke of the party on paper, it did feel like many Republicans in Congress were eager to close the door on Trump’s chapter of the Republican Party. That was still the story after the disappointing 2022 midterm elections, when Trump-backed candidates appeared to be faltering. At the time, the party seemed to be faced with a choice about its future.

But once the 2024 Republican primaries began, it seemed Republicans had resigned themselves to making Trump their standard-bearer again. Even as a presidential candidate, he had significant influence on the Republican agenda, such as when he brokered a bipartisan border deal early this year. And as we heard in his speech tonight, Trump will almost certainly take full credit for what looks to be a great election cycle for Republicans. His position as party leader may translate better to Congress this time around, between his experience on the job and what appears to be a larger Republican majority in the Senate. After tonight, it feels like it’s Trump’s Republican Party, and we’re all just living in it.