President Barack Obama faced a political rebuke and a curb on his policy ambitions yesterday after Republicans seized control of the US Senate and captured their biggest majority in the House of Representatives since Harry Truman’s presidency more than 60 years ago.

Tuesday’s midterm elections gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress for the first time since elections in 2006. Obama has lurched from crisis to crisis and his has unpopularity made him unwelcome to many fellow Democrats running for office.

We need to get things done... and put things on the President’s desk and make the President make some decisions

The US President has now invited Democratic and Republican leaders of Congress to the White House tomorrow to take stock of the new political landscape.

It was “a pretty ugly night” for Democrats, said Representative Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, speaking on MSNBC.

When the new Congress convenes in January, Republicans will be armed with their biggest majority in the House since the Democrat Truman’s first term in the late 1940s. With some races yet to be decided, NBC News projected Republicans would win at least 244 seats in the 435-seat chamber.

Barack Obama has been dealt a punishing blow as voter discontent yesterday gave Republicans control of the US Senate that will limit his legislative agenda for his last two years in office. Photos: Reuters

The Republican takeover will force Obama to scale back his ambitions to either executive actions that do not require legislative approval, or items that might gain bipartisan support, such as trade agreements and tax reform.

It also will test his ability to compromise with newly empowered political opponents who have been resisting his legislative agenda since he was first elected in 2008. Americans elected him to a second and final four-year term in 2012.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a possible presidential candidate in 2016 who campaigned for fellow Repub-licans around the country, said the Senate results put the burden on Obama.

“We need to get things done ... and put things on the President’s desk and make the President make some decisions,” Christie said on CBS This Morning. He cited tax reform, a national energy policy and job stimulation as pressing needs.

The shift in the Senate also could prompt a White House staff turnover as some exhausted members of the Obama team consider departing in favour of fresh legs.

Before the election results, the White House had signalled no major changes. Officials said Obama would seek common ground with Congress in such areas as trade and infrastructure.

A one-term senator before he became President, Obama has often been faulted for not developing closer relations with lawmakers.

He will find one familiar face in a powerful new position. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who won a tough re-election battle against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, will replace Democrat Harry Reid as Senate majority leader. Reid has been one of Obama’s top political allies and helped steer the President’s signature healthcare law through the Senate in 2010.

In Tuesday’s rout, Republicans won in places where Democrats were favoured, pulled out victories where the going was tough and swept a number of governors’ races in states where Democrats were favoured, including Obama’s home state of Illinois.

Republicans needed six seats to win control of the 100-member Senate. By yesterday, Republican candidates had picked up seven Democratic seats: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia.