LEILA FADEL, HOST:
It's a time when the next president of the United States draws overwhelming attention, but a lot depends on the people who surround him.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Yeah, President-elect Trump has begun choosing members of his staff and also saying who will not be on board. Aside from that, he doesn't know yet how much power his party will have in Congress. Republicans will take the Senate and choose their leader this week. They are close to a narrow majority in the House, but that depends on ballots still being counted.
FADEL: NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here with the latest. Good morning, Danielle.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: So some new official election results over the weekend. We now know that Trump won all seven battleground states. He's on track to be the first Republican to win the popular vote in two decades. What do you make of the depths of his win?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, depths is an interesting way to ask the question because it's certainly a broad win. I mean, that's for sure. Six of those seven battlegrounds you mentioned he flipped from Biden in 2020. And like you also noted, it's the first time that Trump won the popular vote. Now, Trump, for his part, has claimed his win is a historic and unprecedented mandate. Now, it is not unprecedented. Many presidents have won the presidency by far more. Right now, Trump is ahead in the popular vote by just shy of 2.5 points.
But as far as a mandate, yeah, I mean, it appears possible or even likely that voters will have empowered him to pass big parts of his agenda. Republicans have won 53 seats in the Senate. They're close to winning the House. But to that mandate point, we do have an evenly divided and a deeply divided country.
FADEL: Right.
KURTZLEBEN: Trump's words and actions on January 6, his promises for political retribution, those have inspired deep anger and fear among the nearly half who didn't vote for him. So whatever he does try to do, it is going to be met with fierce opposition.
FADEL: So you mentioned Republicans are close to winning the House. How close, how many districts are we waiting on?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, at latest count, Republicans have 213 seats, and you need 218 to win the House. Democrats have 203, so Republicans are closer. There are still 19 seats left to be called. Now, it could be days until many of those are counted. Half of those House districts, for example - around half - are in California. And counting votes just takes a long time there because, first of all, there's just a lot of voters, meaning there are also a lot of same-day and mail-in ballots in that huge state.
But as my colleagues Domenico Montanaro and Hilary Fung have recently reported, if the GOP wins the House, it would be with a slim majority, so not a lot of wiggle room for passing those Trump priorities. By the way, we are waiting on one Senate seat as well in Arizona. As of right now, Democrat Ruben Gallego is leading. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, that race has been called for the Republican Dave McCormick, but incumbent Democrat Bob Casey has not conceded.
FADEL: Now, we haven't heard that much from Trump since his speech on election night. What do you know about what's coming next for him?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, we do know a few people who he will or won't be working with in his White House. Now, overnight, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he will appoint Tom Homan as his, as he calls it, border czar. And he specified that Homan will be in charge of mass deportations. And Homan has spoken enthusiastically about those deportations. He has said he will be doing workplace raids. He has also said Susie Wiles will be his chief of staff. She's a longtime veteran of Republican politics. And he will not be having Mike Pompeo or Nikki Haley in his cabinet. He also announced that on Truth Social. Those two both served in his last cabinet.
FADEL: NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thank you, Danielle.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
