When Republicans gain a trifecta by the end of January, it will become far easier for the party to pass legislation and enact President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda — that is if they can overcome the intraparty fighting that has plagued the GOP over the last two years.

By the time Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20, the president-elect will have both chambers of Congress ready to pass key legislation and usher in a slate of new policies regarding national security and more. But if the last two years are any indication, that may be easier said than done.

Since Republicans took control of the House in 2023, GOP lawmakers have quarreled over legislation, often leaving the party at a standstill on must-pass bills. That infighting between different factions of the Republican conference was evident in the last weeks of the 118th Congress, indicating that navigating the trifecta and keeping it together for Trump may be more difficult than they imagined.

And that infighting might interfere with the Republicans’ majority before they even get started.

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The 119th Congress is set to be sworn in Friday, and a new speaker is expected to be chosen that day — if all goes to plan.

Once that is complete, Republicans will hold a virtually nonexistent majority, especially when some House GOP members move to the Trump administration and leave vacancies that will take months to fill.

The process of choosing a speaker has evolved in recent years from being merely a procedural formality to now acting as a game of internal politics — something that could haunt Johnson as he looks to secure a second term as the chamber’s top leader.

When lawmakers are sworn in, Republicans will have a 219-215 majority, meaning Johnson can only afford to have one party member defect on his candidacy before it tanks his bid altogether. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has already said he would not vote for Johnson, and a handful of others have said they may reconsider — possibly putting Johnson’s speakership in jeopardy.

A dragged-out speaker’s race is not necessarily new for this GOP majority. When former Rep. Kevin McCarthy tried his hand at becoming speaker in January 2023, it took four days and 15 ballots to secure the speakership. And even that came at a cost as McCarthy was forced to make a number of side deals with members to secure their support — with one of those agreements eventually leading to his ouster.

Trump’s support could mean the difference between Johnson winning and losing the speakership, and the president-elect has already endorsed him for a second term. But after the most recent government shutdown saga last month, the president-elect is reportedly upset with the speaker and has privately considered dropping him for another leader.

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If Johnson remains in control of the House, he will join Senate Majority Leader-elect John Thune (R-SD) in leading the Republican Party and working with Trump on key legislation and policies — and managing situations in which Trump and Congress do not see eye to eye.

“The biggest challenge is always making sure that the Senate and the House are on the same page, and you have two relatively inexperienced leaders,” GOP strategist John Feehery told the Washington Examiner. “[Thune’s] been around a long time, but this is the first time he’s been [majority] leader. And you have Johnson, who’s only been speaker for a year.”

He said the top goals for both Johnson and Thune will be to “overdo it on communication.”

“People don’t have their ego stroked, and it becomes very difficult to get anything done,” Feehery said. “You have to be able to put aside your personal agendas and just push the views of your teammates.”

Another challenge Republican leaders will need to deal with is negotiating deals among members that could easily be upended by Trump and his allies outside of the halls of Congress — as was evident in the final weeks of the 118th Congress.

Shortly after Johnson negotiated a temporary spending deal with Democrats in both the House and Senate, the agreement was scrapped due to outrage from Trump and those in his close circles. Not only that, GOP leaders were then faced with a surprise eleventh-hour demand from Trump to include a debt ceiling increase in their final spending deal — something that divided the entire GOP caucus days before the government was scheduled to shut down.

As a result, Johnson was tasked with mediating demands from Trump and those from within his House conference — a skill Republican leaders will need to perfect for the next two years in a GOP trifecta.

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Johnson came into the speakership at the end of 2023 after the historic ousting of McCarthy, inheriting a three-seat majority that made it extremely difficult to pass contentious policy along party lines.

From foreign aid to government spending, Johnson and Republicans spent 2024 relying on Democrats to pass legislation — especially because the Senate and White House were under Democratic control.

Many of the bills and resolutions passed this year were pushed over the finish line by Democrats after members such as those in the Freedom Caucus defected and voted no. However, strategists, including Feehery, point out that hard-line conservatives could do so because of the Democratic help they despised but unfortunately relied on.

Now, with a GOP trifecta, Republicans are “shooting with real bullets,” Feehery said.

“You are making real decisions, and your political fate is totally tied up in the political fate of the president,” Feehery said. “So if you don’t fall in line and just kind of go in your own direction and screw everything up, it not only hurts the whole team, but it also hurts you individually.”

“The stakes are higher,” he continued.

Besides the most recent spending fight, other intraparty conflicts include recess appointments of Trump’s Cabinet picks, as well as the newly created Department of Government Efficiency that has allowed co-Chairman Elon Musk to wade into congressional politics, to the dismay of many.

“The DOGE is something the president set up, and one of the things that Congress is really good at is protecting spending,” Feehery said. “As an institution, it’s built on that.”