Republicans keep the House, handing Trump a trifecta of government control

• Republicans are projected to maintain their majority in the House of Representatives.
• That means Trump is set to have a trifecta, as he did in the first half of his first term.

After more than a week counting outstanding ballots across several states, Republicans are officially projected to maintain control of the House of Representatives.

According to projections from NBC and CNN, Republicans will win at least 218 House seats, enough to claim the majority. Several races still remain undecided, with ballots continuing to be counted. The GOP currently holds a 220-seat majority.

Democrats picked up GOP-held seats in New York, Oregon, California, Louisiana, and Alabama, while Republicans flipped Democratic-held seats in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and North Carolina.

The GOP also retook control of the Senate, meaning President-elect Donald Trump will enjoy a governing trifecta for at least the next two years, as he did during the first two years of his first term.

As a result of the GOP keeping the House, Trump will avoid the resistance he encountered from a Democratic-led House during the last two years of his first term. Furthermore, he'll be dealing with a far more obedient GOP than existed during the first two years — after several successive election cycles, the party has largely been remade in Trump's image.

Congress is particularly important for Trump when it comes to tax policy. Many of his other policy goals can be accomplished via executive orders, but the incoming president will need congressional action to exempt tips, overtime pay, and Social Security benefits from taxation, as he's promised.

About three dozen House races were considered to be competitive, ranging from Republican-held swing districts in traditionally Democratic states like New York and California to suburban districts across the country where Democrats have made inroads in recent election cycles.

It took far longer to determine who controls the House than the Senate or White House in large part due to the slow counting of mail-in ballots in Arizona and California.

Both House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are expected to remain in their respective roles, with internal leadership elections set to take place later this month.