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The firstUS Your browser does not support the element. week of the 119th Congress, which convened on January 3rd, revealed some important truths about how power will be exercised in Washington over the next two years. Donald Trump won’t always get his way on Capitol Hill, though any Republican opposing his preferences will also usually claim to be supporting the president. And even though Mr Trump isn’t all-powerful, it will be hard for anything to happen without him.First consider the uneasy re-election of Mike Johnson as House Speaker. Mr Johnson won near-unanimous support from his party on the first ballot, an improvement over the 15 rounds of voting it took for his Republican predecessor two years ago. But the win required months of lobbying, and uncertainty prevailed until a few minutes before he secured the gavel—with last-minute help from Mr Trump.Conservative hardliners had brought a range of complaints about the House leadership. They see the Speaker, implausibly, as a spendthrift who does not cater enough to the needs of their slash-and-burn wing of the party. After the election several insurgents signed a public letter declaring that they backed Mr Trump’s choice for Speaker “despite our sincere reservations”. The letter outlined policy demands and desired procedural changes. These were broadly in line with Mr Trump’s goals, but some, such as attaching strings to an increase in the debt limit or rapidly balancing America’s budget, would certainly irk him. The dissidents made clear that, unless their demands are met, Mr Johnson might soon lose his grip on power.Such fights matter in a year filled with important legislative deadlines. Republicans have defence spending to approve, a government budget to pass by March 14th, and a debt ceiling to raise or suspend by around June. And that is a bare minimum aside from ambitious immigration and energy legislation and a complex renewal of Mr Trump’s first-term tax cuts. All of these challenges contain plenty of opportunities to alienate conservatives and moderates alike, meaning that every big vote could be as fraught as Mr Johnson’s investiture.Yet Republicans spent their first days in Washington confused about how they would even approach passing the legislation. The Senate, led by John Thune, prefers a two-track process, whereby Congress notches an early victory with a bill covering immigration, energy and other priorities before beginning tax negotiations. Mr Johnson and other prominent figures in the House want one massive bill as leverage against restive Republicans unhappy with specific tweaks to the tax code.Either strategy is fraught given that Republicans won the House by the slimmest majority since the 1930 election. This sort of impasse is designed to be resolved by presidential leadership. “I like one big, beautiful bill,” Mr Trump said on January 7th. “But if two is more certain, it does go a little bit quicker because you can do the immigration stuff early.”A paradox of Mr Trump’s second term is that while he has become more politically formidable, Republicans have less room for error in the House. The quick election of Mr Johnson, and the days of confusion around strategy that followed, showed the difference Mr Trump can make simply by taking an interest. Whether he can sustain that involvement to see his legislative agenda through is less certain.
