CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten said Monday that President-elect Donald Trump will likely be able to easily pass legislation due to the current makeup of the Republican Party.
Republicans retook control of the Senate and maintained control of the House in the November election, securing unified control of the federal government for the first two years of Trump’s upcoming second term. Enten, on “CNN News Central,” said the fact that most of the Republicans who voted to impeach or convict Trump are no longer in Congress suggests that the president-elect will be able to accomplish his legislative agenda.
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“It’s Donald Trump’s party and his GOP opponents can cry if they want to, to borrow some words from [deceased singer] Lesley Gore. Look, ‘GOP voted to impeach or convict Trump.’ You go back to January or February 2021, it was 17 Republicans,” Enten said. “They’re adios amigos, goodbye, see ya later for the most part. Now just five of ’em … remain in Congress. Just two in the House. Three in the Senate.”
“The bottom line is this: Trump had a big control over the Republican Party before, but now it is even stronger. There are very few folks who dislike Donald Trump on the Republican side, who are still in the United States Congress,” he continued. “He should be able to ram through legislation, at least on the ones in which he just needs Republican votes.”
CNN anchor Sara Sidner asked Enten how Republican voters currently feel about Trump.
“It’s the same basic thing that we see in the United States Senate and the United States House. Alright, Republicans on the Trump transition. You go back to January 2017. It was 80% approve. Now that’s not bad, but oh my goodness gracious. Look at where we are now. It’s 96%,” the data reporter answered. “I mean, you can’t get any more universal basically than 96%. Those that disapprove, look it was 10% back in January 2017.”
“Now it’s down to, get this, it’s down to just four … So look, there are no GOP opponents in the United States Congress. There are very few among Republican voters,” he continued. “This is Trump’s party. [Republican Utah Sen.] Mitt Romney 100% correct on that. Folks like Romney just really don’t exist in the GOP electorate or in Congress anymore.”
Romney, a longtime critic of Trump, credited the president-elect on Sunday’s CNN’s “State of the Union” for successfully transforming the Republican Party with the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
“MAGA is the Republican Party and Donald Trump is the Republican Party today. If you were to ask me who the nominee will be in 2028, I think it’ll be [Vice President-elect] JD Vance,” Romney said. “He’s smart. Well spoken. Part of the MAGA movement.”
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