How will Biden handle a hostile Republican House and what does it mean for 2024?

After a bruising fight over the House speakership, newly empowered Republicans officially set to work this week on what they say is a mandate to hold Joe Biden and his administration to account.

Whether such shows of comity lead to bipartisan cooperation, political conflict or both will prove a critical test for Biden in a divided government over the next two years.

Barack Obama also played on themes of Republican intransigence to win re-election in 2012, after Democrats lost the House in 2010.

Riley, who has examined how presidents navigate divided government, said a hostile Republican House could prove an effective foil for Biden should he seek a second term.

Biden sought to offer a contrast last week, visiting a dilapidated bridge in Kentucky to tout a $1.2tn infrastructure bill signed into law with Republican support, even as McCarthy suffered rounds of humiliating defeats in his quest to be speaker. Biden was joined by the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, and other Republicans.

The president then traveled to the US-Mexico border, as Republicans blame his immigration policies for the record number of migrants crossing into the country. This week, Biden wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed that urged Congress to work together to hold big tech accountable.

Biden has emphasized his willingness to work with the Republican House but he has also drawn red lines. A slate of tax-related proposals, he said, would make inflation worse.

The White House also shot down any suggestion it would circumvent Congress to avoid a debt-default.

He has argued that support for his agenda, including a hard-won health and climate law passed despite unified Republican opposition, would only grow as the policies take effect over the next two years.

Still, a divided Congress leaves little opportunity for progress on campaign promises Democrats were not able to enact when they controlled both chambers. Progressives are calling on Biden to use executive actions to prove his commitment to issues he ran on in 2020 and to make the case for 2024.