Americans could know the balance of power in the House of Representatives as soon as Thursday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., anticipates.

The top House Republican spoke with Fox News Digital after his party won commanding victories in the White House and Senate on Election Day. The Fox News Decision Desk projected the GOP having a slight edge over Democrats in the House as of Wednesday afternoon.

‘I mean, California’s the main state still. You know, in a lot of those close races, our incumbents are leading the way – by small margins, but we knew there would be small margins,’ Scalise told Fox News Digital on Wednesday evening.

‘We also have some seats that we have a chance to flip that are leaning our way, too. So, you know, we’re watching all of them, and they’re coming down the wire. But I think we’ll know by [Thursday], hopefully.’

Republicans in President-elect Trump’s sphere and elsewhere are ‘in a great mood’ after Tuesday night, Scalise said.

‘It appears we’re going to hold the House and flip the Senate,’ Scalise said. ‘You know, it’s going to be a rare opportunity within any government to really focus in January on turning this country around.’

Scalise already signaled part of what that may look like earlier in the day, when he publicly called for the various prosecutions into Trump to end now that he was re-elected president.

He and other Trump allies had long dismissed the criminal probes as a misuse of the federal government, despite some of them leading to grand jury indictments and criminal convictions.

Asked if a Republican-led Washington would look to reform the justice system to make such perceived attacks harder, Scalise said, ‘There needs to be reform.’

‘I think this is one of the issues where the public spoke very loudly last night, that they want to end the weaponization of the federal government against political enemies,’ Scalise said. 

The Biden administration has denied the federal investigations into Trump are politically motivated.

‘President Trump’s made it clear, he’s going to clean house. I think people want to see, you know, in essence, the dirty cops get removed,’ Scalise said.

‘They want to have restored faith in all of these once great agencies. And the American people deserve that, because these agencies need to be focused on doing their job, and that’s to keep Americans safe.’

In a further show of confidence that Republicans would win the House, Scalise sent a letter to House Republicans on Wednesday evening announcing he was running for majority leader again.

In the four-page memo, he detailed what the first 100 day goals of a Republican federal government would look like.

‘Now it is up to us to work closely with Trump to enact legislation that will provide long-term relief and put our country on a sustainable trajectory. In the first 100 days, House Republicans will advance a bold, conservative agenda that will get the economy back on track, lock in low tax rates, and secure our southern border,’ he wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News Digital.

He pledged Republicans would push through conservative reforms via a process called ‘reconciliation,’ which has been used by both parties in the past to force through significant policy reforms in a budget bill that only needs a simple majority to pass the Senate, instead of the traditional 60-vote threshold.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed presidential bid has political strategists second guessing many of her campaign choices, including her selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

‘The choice of Walz was only one of many disastrous mistakes but symptomatic of one larger problem – the Democratic Party leadership is too scared to say no to the hard left progressive wing of the party,’ Julian Epstein, longtime Democratic operative and former chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital.

This hard left opposes commonsense solutions that Gov Shapiro supports – charter schools for example. Or defeating terrorists rather than aping their talking points and positions, which allow them to stay in power and rearm for the next genocidal attack,’ Epstein continued. ‘It’s the hard left progressive wing that looks first to welfare and redistribution rather than economic growth, and to cultural extremism on migration and gender deeply out of touch with the American electorate. Walz was a really bad choice for sure, but their choice was part of a deeper problem.’

Rob Bluey, president and executive editor of The Daily Signal, told Fox News Digital that Walz being added to the ticket was a significant error in judgment.

‘Historically, vice presidents have little impact on a presidential candidate’s fate,’ Bluey said. ‘But in the case of Tim Walz, it proved to be a disastrous decision that doomed Kamala Harris from the moment she made it. Not only was Walz ill-prepared for the national spotlight and media scrutiny, but Harris passed over several better options. Given how little Americans knew about Harris or her policy positions, they were right to question her judgment on this big decision.’

Harris faced scrutiny even from some in her own party over her decision to name Walz, who many view as further to the left than she is, rather than a more moderate choice. Prominent Democrat Josh Shapiro, governor of the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania that Trump carried on Tuesday night, was viewed by some as a more practical choice.

‘One of the things that are top of mind is the choice of Tim Walz as vice presidential candidate,’ Harris-Walz surrogate Lindy Li told Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich at Howard University. ‘A lot of people are saying tonight that it should have been Josh Shapiro. Frankly, people have been saying that for months.’

‘I know a lot of people are probably wondering tonight what would have happened had Shapiro been on the ticket,’ Li continued. ‘And not only in terms of Pennsylvania. He’s famously a moderate. So that would have signaled to the American people that she is not the San Francisco liberal that Trump said she was.’

Walz was heavily criticized on the campaign trail over questions about his honesty regarding his military service, ties to China, response to the George Floyd riots in 2020, and policy agenda as governor that several Minnesotans who spoke to Fox News Digital described as radical.

Firehouse Strategies founding partner Alex Conant told Fox News Digital that while Walz did not help the ticket, the problems were much deeper.

‘Democrats must have a lot of regrets,’ Conant said. ‘Walz didn’t help the ticket, but he’s not why she lost. VP candidates just don’t matter that much.’

‘Bigger issues were Trump’s well-run campaign, Biden’s unpopular record, and Harris’ lackluster performance as a candidate – and I’m not sure how she could have changed any of those things.’

A new law in Israel allows for the deportation of family members of Palestinian attackers, including Israelis, to the Gaza Strip or another location.

Passed by Israel’s parliament, known officially as Knesset, early on Thursday with a 61-41 vote, the law was championed by members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and his far-right allies. Deportation of a terrorist’s immediate family member could be ordered by the interior minister authority following a hearing, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Family members who had advance knowledge of an attack and failed to report it to police or ‘expressed support or identification with an act of terrorism or published words of praise, sympathy or encouragement for an act of terrorism or a terrorist organization’ would be subject to the law, The Times of Israel reports. 

They would be deported for a period of seven to 20 years. The Israel-Hamas war is still raging in Gaza, where tens of thousands have been killed and most of the population has been internally displaced, often multiple times. 

Legal experts believe that any attempt to implement the law would likely lead to it being struck down by Israeli courts.

‘The bottom line is this is completely nonconstitutional and a clear conflict to Israel’s core values,’ Eran Shamir-Borer, a senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute and a former international law expert for the Israeli military, told the Associated Press. 

It is unclear if the law will apply in the occupied West Bank, where Israel already has a long-standing policy of demolishing the family homes of attackers. Palestinians have carried out scores of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis in recent years.

Palestinians living in Israel make up around 20% of the country’s population. They have citizenship and the right to vote but face widespread discrimination. Many also have close family ties to those in the territories and most sympathize with the Palestinian cause.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

President-elect Donald Trump succeeded early in the morning on Wednesday, and defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race for the White House.

Trump will take office for a second time in January.

The only other presidential candidate in history to win the presidency non-consecutively was Grover Cleveland, who was elected as the 22nd and 24th U.S. president.

Cleveland, born into a large family as one of nine children in New Jersey, according to WhiteHouse.gov., was raised in New York.

The former president studied law and became a lawyer before taking public office as mayor of Buffalo in 1881, according to WhiteHouse.gov.

Cleveland became the Democrat U.S. presidential candidate in 1884, while he was serving as the governor of New York. He was the first Democrat elected president after the Civil War, defeating his Republican opponent, Sen. James G. Blaine of Maine.

During his first term in office, he faced criticism for his veto of private pension bills for Civil War veterans, according to NPR.

Also during his first term, a proposed bill to provide Texas farmers with $10,000 in federal funds to be used for seed grain was brought to the floor, which he vetoed, according to the New York Post.

Cleveland called for Congress to reduce high protective tariffs from the Civil War, according to the Associated Press, and signed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, which established federal regulation of an industry for the first time through its regulation of railroads, according to NPR. 

During his first term in office, Frances Folsom, who was 21 at the time, became the first lady with her marriage to Cleveland. To this day, Cleveland is the only president to be married inside the White House. 

Four years after becoming president, Cleveland was up for re-election. He campaigned against Republican Benjamin Harrison but was unsuccessful in his bid to return to the White House.

Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College to his Republican opponent.

‘He began the race without a campaign manager; delegated most of the electioneering responsibilities to his running mate, Allen Thurman, who, at the age of 74, was not healthy enough to withstand the rigors of campaigning; and based the entire race around his proposal to reduce tariffs, which divided his own Democratic Party and unified the Republicans in opposition,’ presidential historian Troy Senik told History.com. 

In 1892, there was a rematch between Cleveland and Harrison, and Cleveland came out victorious, making him the first to return to the White House for a non-consecutive term.

Cleveland was the only president to hold this distinction until Trump accomplished a similar feat.

Trump was first elected as president in 2016, when he beat his Democrat opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trump lost the popular vote but won the electoral vote to win the presidential race.

Trump’s success stems from a background in business as a real estate developer, rather than politics.

In July 2016, Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president, was elected on Nov. 8, 2016, and was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2017. 

His first term in office included policies like tax cuts, energy independence, military expansion, improved health care for veterans and security of the southern border.

Also during his first term, Trump appointed federal judges, including three U.S. Supreme Court judges, and signed legislation to create the Space Force, the first new armed service since 1947, according to the U.S. Department of Defense’s website.

In 2020, Trump faced Democrat challenger Joe Biden for the White House and lost the election.

After years removed from the presidency, Trump began a campaign for re-election. He announced his third run for office in the days after the 2022 midterm elections and began two more years of campaigning.

Initially, Trump and Biden were campaigning against one another again. However, in July 2024, now-President Biden announced an end to his re-election bid and endorsed his vice president, Harris, as the Democrat nominee.

Trump defeated Harris in the 2024 presidential election, becoming president-elect. Trump is now the 45th and 47th U.S. president.

‘I want to thank you all very much,’ Trump said in an address to the American people during the early morning hours Wednesday, after the results of Election Day. ‘This is great. These are our friends. We have thousands of friends in this incredible movement. This is a movement like nobody’s ever seen before; I believe the greatest political movement of all time.’

‘I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected the 47th president,’ Trump continued. ‘And every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and your future. Every single day, I will be fighting for you. And with every breath in my body, I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve.’

The White House is ushering in a new era with the election of a second Trump presidency with Usha Vance set to become the first Indian American second lady in the White House.

Vance, who is the daughter of Indian immigrants, will also be the first Hindu second lady.

Vice President-elect JD Vance credited his ‘beautiful wife for making it possible to do this’ after the big win.

‘THANK YOU! To my beautiful wife for making it possible to do this,’ he wrote on X. ‘To President Donald J. Trump, for giving me such an opportunity to serve our country at this level. And to the American people, for their trust. I will never stop fighting for ALL of you.’

The attorney has been married to JD since 2014 and they have three children together: sons, Ewan, 6, and Vivek, 4, and a daughter, Mirabel, 2.

Before law school, Vance received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale and a master’s in philosophy from the University of Cambridge.

She completed multiple clerkships after her graduation from Yale, according to an Axios report, including for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Vance made headlines during the Republican National Committee in July.

‘My background is very different from JD’s. I grew up in San Diego, in a middle-class community, with two loving parents, both immigrants from India, and a wonderful sister,’ she said. ‘That JD and I could meet at all, let alone fall in love and marry, is a testament to this great country.’

Fox News’ Yael Horan contributed to this report.

A Democratic congressman from New York recently blamed progressives for President-elect Trump’s victory this week, arguing that far-left causes actually disenchant certain voters.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., claimed that his party has ‘alienated historic numbers’ of minority voters in an X (former Twitter)  post on Wednesday. Torres, a vocal supporter of Israel, pointed fingers at pro-Palestinian protests as one of the causes – as well as the movement to defund police.

‘Donald Trump has no greater friend than the far left, which has managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’ or ‘From the River to the Sea’ or ‘Latinx,’ Torres wrote.

‘There is more to lose than there is to gain politically from pandering to a far left that is more representative of Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok than it is of the real world,’ the Democrat added. ‘The working class is not buying the ivory-towered nonsense that the far left is selling.’

Torres’ comments came in the aftermath of the initial 2024 election results, which found that Vice President Harris had less favorability among Latino and Hispanic voters than President Biden did in 2020.

According to a Fox News Voter Analysis, Biden garnered 63% of Latino support in 2020 while Harris only had 54% this year.

Another Fox News Voter Analysis found that support for Trump among Latino and Hispanic voters jumped from 35% in 2020 to 41% in 2024.

The shift came days after the Trump campaign was criticized for hosting comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at a high-profile Oct. 27 rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The comedian made an inflammatory joke about Puerto Rico being a ‘floating island of garbage,’ prompting an outcry.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., attempted to use Hinchliffe’s joke as an opportunity to sway the Latino community shortly after he uttered the remark.

‘That’s just what they think about you,’ the congresswoman said during a Twitch stream. ‘It’s what they think about anyone who makes less money than them. It’s what they think about the people who serve them food in a restaurant. It’s what they think about the people who, who fold their clothes in a store.’

After Vice President Kamala Harris’s speech on Wednesday conceding her loss to President-elect Trump in the 2024 race, President Biden issued a statement saying that selecting Harris as his running mate was the ‘best decision’ he made.

In a written statement, Biden said Harris stepped up to lead a ‘historic campaign’ under ‘extraordinary circumstances.’

Harris’ campaign, Biden said, ’embodied what’s possible when guided by a strong moral compass and a clear vision for a nation that is more free, more just, and full of more opportunities for all Americans.’

Biden said selecting Harris was the first decision he made after he became the nominee for president in 2020.

‘It was the best decision I made. Her story represents the best of America’s story. And as she made clear today, I have no doubt that she’ll continue writing that story,’ Biden said. 

The statement came shortly after Harris told supporters at her alma mater, Howard University, that she had lost her race against Trump. 

‘The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for,’ Harris said. ‘But hear me when I say, the light of America’s promise will always burn bright, as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting.’

Harris had planned to address Wednesday’s audience on Election Night with a more upbeat message to deliver. 

Instead, when Harris took the stage, she looked out at a sea of American flags and notably forlorn faces. She was flanked by 30 American flags.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.