'Enough already': Trump Cabinet choices eat away at the House GOP's tight majority
WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump has found a favorite spot to shop for Cabinet nominees: The U.S. House.
It's setting off a scramble in the chamber, where Republicans are likely to have an extremely narrow majority in 2025. At the moment, Republicans have won 218 seats – the bare minimum needed to take control of the chamber – with only a handful of races left to be called.
Trump's selection of Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to be ambassador to the United Nations, Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., as national security adviser and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. to be attorney general leaves a three-seat gap that could compromise that GOP majority.
"It's a great problem to have, we have an embarrassment of riches in the House Republican conference. Lots of talented people," House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News Thursday. "But I've told President Trump 'enough already, you've got to give me some relief. I've got to maintain this majority.' And he understands that."
Johnson added that he is speaking almost hourly with the president-elect and that he wasn't concerned about Trump's nominations leading to a Democratic take-over of one branch of Congress. "I think we're going to be settled... we will have the majority," he said.
Gaetz abruptly resigned from Congress after Trump announced his nomination Wednesday, kicking off a race for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to set up a special election to replace him.
Johnson said Wednesday that he already called DeSantis to "start the clock." He estimated that process will take about eight weeks and that he hopes they can get the seat filled by the start of the next session on Jan. 3, 2025.
DeSantis will do the same to fill Waltz's seat once he leaves Congress. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has up to 80 days to hold a special election to fill Stefanik's seat once she resigns.
All three Trump hires come from heavily Republican areas that are very likely to send another GOP lawmaker to fill the seat, which puts some members at ease.
"If (a nominee) is going to endanger the majority, he will pull it," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
The tiny majority in the current Congress — in which any absence due to unexpected illness, deaths or retirements can change Republicans’ ability to govern — is set to be repeated over the next two years.“It is what it is,” Cole said when asked if he worries about his colleagues taking risks or their flagging health, given the narrow margins. “You can’t worry about that.”
House Republicans are familiar with this issue: They only have a 220-seat majority in the chamber right now, which means they have a four-seat margin to retain control.
That slim lead has created headaches for Republicans over the last two years. So long as all Democrats band together in opposition, it means a small group of GOP members can easily derail policy agreements or force massive changes, such as the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in October 2023.
"Obviously we will have a very tight majority as we've had in this Congress," said Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who represents a moderate district encompassing New York City suburbs. "We're going to need to work together and work through these issues. On party line votes, it's going to be very tight."
This time, however, the House's ability to function could be the difference between conservative policies becoming law or getting mired in dysfunction.
That's not lost on House Republicans, who plan to agree to rules changes that could prevent individual members from creating chaos – though those rules still need to be formally approved in January.
"We've dealt with it last year," said Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Wisc., a member of the House Freedom Caucus. "We have a new leader. We have a unified government. I think everybody understands Donald Trump's the president and we're going to fall in line."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump Cabinet picks test House Republicans' narrow majority