Failing peace talks and the emergence of ISIS in the country caused the War in Afghanistan to continue on into the Trump Administration.[1][2][3] On February 25, 2019, negotiations began between the Taliban and the United States in Qatar[4] and resumed again in December of that year.[5] On February 29, 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed a conditional peace deal in Doha, Qatar,[6] that called for a prisoner exchange within ten days and was supposed to lead to US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021.[7]
On April 13, 2021, newly elected President Joe Biden announced his revised plan to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, this date being the twentieth anniversary of the September 11 Attacks. The date for US troops to withdraw from Afghanistan was moved forward to August 31.[8] The withdrawal of US soldiers and other foreign soldiers coincided with the 2021 Taliban offensive, where the Taliban defeated the Afghan Armed Forces culminating with the fall of Kabul on August 15, 2021. On the same day, the president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani fled to Tajikistan and the Taliban declared victory and the war had ended.[9][10] Following a massive airlift of more than 120,000 people, the US military mission in Afghanistan ended on August 30, 2021.[11]
In the 2016 presidential election, the GOP had 17 candidates. The Democratic Party had fewer potential candidates to choose from, and the campaign early on centered on Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State, United States Senator from New York, and First Lady of the United States. A surprise challenger to Clinton appeared in 74-year-old Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-identified democratic socialist and the one of only two independents in the Senate. Despite attracting a large, enthusiastic following among mostly young voters, Sanders was unable to secure the nomination. When the primary season finished in the spring, Clinton secured the Democratic nomination. Senator Bernie Sanders finally conceded the race, endorsing then presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton.
Meanwhile, in June 2015, real estate mogul Donald Trump announced that he was seeking the presidency. Although Trump's announcement received little attention at first (he had mounted a short-lived third-party presidential run in 2000), he quickly bounded out of the gate with a populist message about his perceived decline of American economic and geopolitical prestige under the previous two administrations. By the start of the primary season in early 2016, Trump was polling ahead of the other GOP candidates despite his lack of political experience and attracting a considerable following among the party base. By the spring of 2016, most GOP candidates had dropped out of the running and Trump had no remaining challengers other than Ted Cruz and John Kasich. Some right wing conservatives and Christian groups continued to support Cruz, especially as there was controversy over Trump's personal life and relatively liberal attitude on social issues. However, Trump's economic message had widespread populist appeal and on May 3, Ted Cruz officially ended his presidential campaign. John Kasich followed suit the following day. As the primaries gave way to the general election, Hillary Clinton faced numerous controversies over her tenure as Secretary of State, namely an email server scandal. Polls and surveys showed that both Clinton and Trump had an overall negative image among voters. Meanwhile, Donald Trump chose as his running mate Indiana Governor Mike Pence. Pence, a staunch conservative Christian, was seen as a way of winning over heartland conservatives, many of whom were Ted Cruz supporters wary of Trump's attitude on social issues. Clinton chose as her running mate Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, seen as a way of connecting with blue collar white voters, Trump's base of support.[13]
During the general election, controversies over remarks Donald Trump had made over the years seen as demeaning to women came up, including a beauty pageant he had been a judge on in the 1990s where he had criticized the appearance of a contestant, as well as a leaked 2005 audio tape in which he made vulgar statements about the treatment of women.[14] Hillary Clinton, however, continued to be embroiled in controversies of her own, the biggest being the revelation that she had used an unsecured private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State, leaving the possibility of having mismanaged or compromised classified documents. In addition, John Podesta, Clinton's campaign manager, had his private email account hacked, releasing over 20,000 campaign emails in October and November 2016 by WikiLeaks.[15]
US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross meets with Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei, Beijing, September 2017 a meeting dealing with the China–United States trade war.
In December 2017, Congress passed and President Trump signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The Act amended the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 based on tax reform advocated by congressional Republicans and the Trump administration. Major elements include reducing tax rates for businesses and individuals; a personal tax simplification by increasing the standard deduction and family tax credits, but eliminating personal exemptions and making it less beneficial to itemize deductions; limiting deductions for state and local income taxes (SALT) and property taxes; further limiting the mortgage interest deduction; reducing the alternative minimum tax for individuals and eliminating it for corporations; reducing the number of estates impacted by the estate tax; and repealing the individual shared responsibility provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).[18] The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that, under the Act, individuals and pass-through entities like partnerships and S corporations would receive about $1,125billion in net benefits (i.e. net tax cuts offset by reduced healthcare subsidies) over 10 years, while corporations would receive around $320billion in benefits. The individual and pass-through tax cuts fade over time and become net tax increases starting in 2027 while the corporate tax cuts are permanent. This enabled the Senate to pass the bill with only 51 votes, without the need to defeat a filibuster, under the budget reconciliation process.[19] Tax cuts were reflected in individual worker paychecks as early as February 2018 and with the corporate tax rate being reduced from 35% to 21%, numerous major American corporations announced across-the-board pay raises and bonuses for their workers, expanded benefits and programs, and investments in capital improvements.[20][21][22]
Trump announced plans to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement in June 2017. The agreement prevented any country from leaving less than three years after it began, so the United States had to wait until November 4, 2019, to officially start the withdrawal process. After a mandatory one-year waiting period, the country left on November 4, 2020.[23]
On May 9, 2018, the Trump Administration withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) (also known as the Iran Nuclear Deal) with Iran, and other Great Powers, over alleged violations of the agreement by the Iranians in regards toward their nuclear program.[24]
In October 2019, the Federal Reserve announced that it would conduct a repurchase agreement operation to provide funds in the repo markets after the overnight lending rates spiked well above the Fed's target rate during the week of September 16.[25]
At that time, the United States began to feel the effects of a global synchronized economic slowdown that began after global growth peaked in 2017 and industrial output started to decline in 2018. The International Monetary Fund blamed 'heightened trade and geopolitical tensions' as the main reason for the slowdown, citing Brexit and the China–United States trade war as primary reasons for slowdown in 2019, while other economists blamed liquidity issues.[26][27]
In June 2020, the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration's order to rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), saying the administration had not provided adequate reasoning under the Administrative Procedure Act. DACA is a United States immigration policy that allows some individuals with unlawful presence in the United States after being brought to the country as children to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and become eligible for a work permit in the US. To be eligible for the program, recipients cannot have felonies or serious misdemeanors on their records. Unlike the proposed DREAM Act, DACA does not provide a path to citizenship for recipients.
In the aftermath of the election, Trump repeatedly made false claims that widespread electoral fraud had occurred and that only he had legitimately won the election. Although most resulting lawsuits were either dismissed or ruled against by numerous courts,[34][35][36] Trump nonetheless conspired with his campaign team to submit documents in several states (all of which had been won by Biden) which falsely claimed to be legitimate electoral certificates for President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.[37] After the submission of these documents, the Trump campaign intended that the presiding officer of the United States Senate, either President of the Senate Pence or President pro temporeChuck Grassley, would claim to have the unilateral power to reject electors during the January 6, 2021 vote counting session; the presiding officer would reject all electors from the several states in which the Trump campaign had submitted false documents, leaving 232 votes for Trump and 222 votes for Biden, thereby overturning the election results in favour of Trump.[38][39][40] The plans for January 6 failed to come to fruition after Pence refused to follow the campaign's proposals.[41][42] Trump nevertheless urged his supporters on January 6, 2021, to march to the Capitol while the joint session of Congress was assembled there to count electoral votes and formalize Biden's victory, leading to hundreds storming the building and interrupting the electoral vote count; as a result, the House impeached Trump for incitement of insurrection on January 13, 2021, making him the only federal officeholder in American history to be impeached twice (the Senate would later acquit him for the second time on February 13, 2021, after he had already left office).[43] Trump was later indicted in August 2023 over his role, as well as for other criminal proceedings including his mishandling of classified documents and hush money payments.[44][45][46]
Joe Biden was inaugurated on January 20, 2021. He is the oldest president at his inauguration at 78 years old beating his predecessor Donald Trump's record of 70. His vice president, Kamala Harris, was elected alongside Biden and is the first female vice president in American history.
Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021; a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that temporarily established expanded unemployment insurance and sent $1,400 stimulus checks to most Americans in response to continued economic pressure from COVID-19.[49] He signed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; a ten-year plan brokered by Biden alongside Democrats and Republicans in Congress, to invest in American roads, bridges, public transit, ports and broadband access.[50] He appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court—the first Black woman to serve the court. Biden proposed a significant expansion of the U.S. social safety net through the Build Back Better Act, but those efforts, along with voting rights legislation, failed in Congress. However, in August 2022, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a domestic appropriations bill that included some of the provisions of the Build Back Better Act after the entire bill failed to pass. It included significant federal investment in climate and domestic clean energy production, tax credits for solar panels, electric cars and other home energy programs as well as a three-year extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies. From June 2022 until the loss of Democratic control of the House following the 2022 midterm elections, Biden went on a string of legislative achievements including: the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act; the CHIPS and Science Act, a massive investment in the semiconductor industry and manufacturing; Honoring our PACT Act of 2022, expansion of veterans healthcare; and the Respect for Marriage Act, repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and codifying same-sex and interracial marriage.[51][52][53] Republican control of the House following the 2022 midterm elections led to the 118th Congress being described by commentators as the least productive Congress in decades.[54] Following a record long election for speaker in January 2023, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted from his position on October 3, 2023, marking the first time a Speaker of the House in US history had been voted out.[55][56] A new Speaker, Mike Johnson (R-LA) was elected on October 25.[57]
President Biden meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, February 2023
After the October 7, 2023 attack led by Hamas on Israel, President Biden promised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would support Israel[67] and the United States gave Israel military aid.[68] A number of Americans were among those taken as hostages by Hamas during the attack and a number of Americans also died.[69] However, Biden did criticize Israeli forces bombing the Gaza Strip because of the civilian presence there saying Israeli actions should be done with trying to prevent the possibility of "'...innocent Palestinian civilians...'" from being either "'...hurt, murdered, killed, lost'".[70] After a number of ships were attacked in the Red Sea by the Yemeni Houthis, Operation Prosperity Guardian; an international force led by the US to protect ships in the Red Sea was created in December to counteract these attacks.[71] In response to further attacks on shipping a series of airstrikes were done in Yemen upon them in January 2024[72] and later in February also.[73] The United States gave humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas War and built a floating pier on May 17 to help deliver aid as land borders into it were often closed.[74] Later that month Biden proposed a ceasefire under the conditions of: an Israeli withdrawal from "densely populated areas in Gaza, swapping prisoners along with hostages and allowing for humanitarian assistance.[75] A series of controversial protests at university campuses happened across the country as a result of the Israel-Hamas war.[76]
In the 2024 United States presidential election, Donald Trump announced his intention to run on November 22, 2022 while Joe Biden announced his intent to run for re-election on April 25, 2023.[77][78] Both President Biden and Donald Trump became the presumptive nominees for their respective parties on March 12, 2024.[79][80] During the campaign, Trump was found guilty in court of falsifying 34 counts of business records relating to his 2016 campaign on May 31 making him the first former US President to be convicted of a felony crime.[81] Later on the campaign trail on July 13 Trump was subjected to an assassination attempt.[82] Trump selected US Senator JD Vance as his running mate on July 15.[83] A presidential debate was held between both President Biden and former President Trump on June 27, 2024 making it the earliest held presidential until that point.[84] As a result of widespread Democratic concern, Biden dropped out of the race the next month.[85] With President Biden announcing his withdrawal, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that same day she would be running for president, with Biden immediately endorsing her.[86] Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate on August 6.[87] Harris became the presumptive nominee on August 2[88] before later on becoming the official one when she accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on August 22.[89] Trump and Harris participated in one presidential debate together on September 10 while Vance and Walz had a debate on October 1.[90]
Democratic backsliding and Second Trump administration
V-Dem Electoral and Liberal Democracy indices for the United States, 1900–2021
Donald Trump was reelected in the 2024 presidential election to a second non-consecutive term and Vice President Harris conceded to and congratulated Donald Trump on November 6 after his victory in the election.[91] Donald Trump would become the second nonconsecutive elected president being the first since Grover Cleveland was reelected to a second term in 1892.[92] This time, Donald Trump won both the electoral college and popular vote as opposed to 2016 where he won the electoral college but not the popular vote.[93] Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2025 with the ceremony being held inside the US Capitol building rotunda as it was deemed to be too cold to host it outside making it the first one to be held indoors since the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan in 1985.[94] He is the oldest president at his inauguration at 78 years old, beating his predecessor Joe Biden's record by several months.[95] His vice president, JD Vance, was elected alongside Trump.
During the 2020s, scholars and historians of democracy identified a democratic backsliding in the United States.[96] The V-Dem Democracy indices's electoral democracy index score for the United States peaked in 2015 and declined sharply after 2016,[97] for which year it was also downgraded to "flawed democracy" by the Economist Intelligence Unit in its annual Democracy Index report.[98] Both V-Dem and Freedom House downgraded the United States in 2018.[96] According to James Grumbach, beyond the national level, democratic backsliding has occurred in American states under unified Republican Party control while Democratic Party-controlled and divided states have become more democratic.[99] Grumbach also states "policies are more varied across the states as red and blue party coalitions implement increasingly distinct agendas."[100] This backsliding has been accompanied by legislation restricting the civil rights of gender and sexual minorities, abortion rights, and voting rights.
Religious affiliations in the United States in 2023 according to the PRRI.
The percentage of people unaffiliated with any particular religion grew during this period.[101] A 2014 Religious Landscape Study conducted by Pew Research Center from June 4 to September 30, 2014, found Christianity declined 7.8% from 78.4% in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014, unaffiliated rose 6.7% from 16.1% in 2007 to 22.8% in 2014, and non-Christian religions rose 1.2% from 4.7% in 2007 to 5.9% in 2014.[102][103] The Public Religion Research Institute in 2020 conducted a nationwide poll covering data at the county level reporting that 70% percent were Christian, 18% irreligious (3% were atheist and another 3% agnostic), 1% Muslim, 1% Jewish, 1% Buddhist, 0.5% being Hindu and 1% belonging to other religions.[101] Another poll conducted in 2023 reported that 66% were Christian, 27% unaffiliated (5% stating they were atheist and the same percentage saying they were agnostic while the rest said nothing in general), 2% Jewish, %1 Muslim, %1 Hindu, %1 Buddhist, 0.5% were Unitarian Universalists and 2% came from other non-Christian faiths.[104]
A November 2022 survey from YouGov reported 51% of respondents as saying religious diversity was a good thing, 28% "Neither good nor bad", 11% said they were not sure and 10% thought it was a bad thing.[105]
Technology
There was a decline in television viewership during this period. A Pew Research Center poll from 2021 reported that in 2015, 76% of American adults received TV via satellite or cable while in 2021 this had declined to 56%. This decline in cable and satellite TV viewership has been attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and the growth of internet streaming platforms.[106]
Travel and transportation
The 2020 US Census Bureau Community Survey found 91.5% of households had access to at least one car which was a gain from 90.982% in 2015.[107] During the 2010s the number of passengers grew on US airlines on both domestic and international flights consecutively. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a dramatic decline in the number of airline passengers going from its peak during this period of 926.44 million passengers in 2019 to a low of 369.69 million in 2020. In the following years the number of passengers on US airlines began to recover.[108] International travel would end up fully recovering from the downturn in international travel because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2023 with peak numbers being reached by July of that year.[109]
Between 2008 and 2018 the national public transit ridership declined by 6% in the 10-year period overall.[110] Honolulu opened a metro system in 2023, making it the first metro system in Hawaii.[111]
Family
A July 2022 Pew Research Center survey reported that 69% of Americans were in some type of romantic relationship with 51% being married, 11% living with a partner and 8% being in a "committed romantic relationship". 30% were reported as being single and 1% did not give an answer.[112] A 2024 YouGov survey of adults who were US Citizens reported that 85% had never been in a polyamorous relationship while 11% had and 4% said they were not sure.[113]
Recreation and leisure
The United States did not host either a Summer Olympic Games or a Winter one during the late 2000s and 2010s[114] but one is currently scheduled for 2028 in Los Angeles.[115] The United States did boycott one Olympic games during this period, the 2022 Winter Olympics by prohibiting US governmental officials from attending but did still participate athletically.[116]
In a 2021 Statistica datasheet, there would be a much lower reported violent crime rate in the late 2000s and throughout the 2010s and 2020s (until that point) than any year in the 1990s; with the peak year being in 2008 with 458.6 violent crimes per 100,000 people.[117] Violent crime rates did rise in the early 2020s based on FBI data before dropping once again close to pre COVID-19 pandemic levels by 2023. Yet there was a rise in property crimes particularly car thefts[118] which has been attributed to a trend on TikTok about stealing Kia and Hyundai cars regarding a security vulnerability in them.[119] Both companies responded by doing a software upgrade to prevent this.[120] However data surrounding crime is incomplete to a degree as the FBI retired its old crime data collecting system in 2021 and switched to a new one; a decision that was announced to be happening that year several years prior in 2015[121][122] and 62.7% of all law enforcement agencies representing 64.8% of the population reported there data in 2021. As time went on the number of agencies reporting and the percentage of the population represented by the agencies increased reaching 83.3% of all law enforcement agencies which covered 93.5% of the population.[118] The number of full-time law enforcement officers during this period peaked in 2008 at 708,569. It declined to 626,942 by 2013 before the amount once again rose peaking at 697,195 in 2019 before declining once again.[123]
On June 12, 2016, the Orlando nightclub shooting became the deadliest mass shooting in American history at the time, with 49 people killed at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. On October 1, 2017, the Orlando incident was surpassed by the 2017 Las Vegas shooting as the deadliest mass shooting in American history when a gunman fired from his 32nd-floor hotel room of the Mandalay Bay onto a crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival, killing 58 and injuring 869 others before committing suicide. This shooting led to increased dialogue and debate over gun control, particularly the use of bump stocks which allowed the shooter to fire his semi-automatic rifle at a rate similar to a fully automatic weapon. Concerns about public event safety and hotel security also became a focus of public dialogue in the wake of this event. In addition, the investigation was the focus of intense scrutiny, particularly as the official reports and timelines changed several times throughout the investigation. This also led to a number of conspiracy theories.
However, the following month on November 5, a former and troubled USAF soldier killed 26 churchgoers at the First Baptist Church in the Sutherland Springs church shooting. It was the worst mass shooting that occurred in both the State of Texas and at an American place of worship in modern history, surpassing the Charleston church shooting of 2015 and the Waddell Buddhist temple shooting of 1991. The Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting of 2018 also led to major debates on weapon control and brought attention to gaps in reporting to the federal background-check system intended to ban convicted domestic abusers.
After a decrease and legislation toughening laws in the 2000s, the late 2010s saw a rise in hate crimes. Hate crimes became the motive of many mass shootings, with race, sexual orientation, and religion becoming prominent targets.[126][127][128]
Concurrently to the rise in mass shootings, the late 2010s saw a sharp increase in domestic terror incidents. Several studies attributed this rise to an increase in attacks from groups with links to far right-wing extremism, religious extremism, and white supremacy.[129][130][131][132]
In late October 2018, 16 packages containing pipe bombs were mailed via the US Postal Service to several prominent critics of US President Donald Trump, including leading Democratic Party politicians such as former US President Barack Obama, former US Vice President Joe Biden, and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as CNN offices in New York City. On March 21, 2019, Cesar Sayoc, 57, pleaded guilty to 65 felony charges related to the bombing, including using weapons of mass destruction and domestic terrorism.[133]
2020 was marked by a rise in domestic terrorist threats and widespread conspiracy theories around mail-in voting and COVID-19.[134][135] The QAnon conspiracy theory, a fringe far-right political movement among conservatives, gained publicity. Multiple major cities were hit by rioting and brawls between far-left antifascist affiliated groups and far right groups such as the Proud Boys.[136][137][138] In March 2021, FBI director Christopher Wray confirmed an October 2020 report from the Department of Homeland Security that said white supremacists posed the top domestic terrorism threat. Wray noted that the threat from these groups had been elevated to the same level as ISIS.[132][139][140] The January 6 United States Capitol attack was considered by many to be a domestic terror attack.[citation needed] The 2022 elections saw continued attempts of intimidation, and concern for attacks, at voting stations and election offices around the country.[141]
The mid-2010s saw the return of racial unrest in the country, as well as the continued growth of racial polarization and a deterioration of race relations in the US.[142]
The George Floyd protests and riots against police brutality began as local protests in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area of Minnesota before spreading throughout the United States and then worldwide. The protests began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, following the murder of George Floyd during an arrest the previous day. Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes, asphyxiating him, with the help of three other police. Floyd had been handcuffed and pinned to the ground. Protests quickly spread across the United States and internationally in support of Black Lives Matter. At least twelve major cities declared a curfew on the evening of Saturday, May 30, and as of June 2, governors in 24 states and Washington, D.C. had called in the National Guard, with over 17,000 troops activated.
On August 13, 2017, Trump condemned violence "on many sides" after a gathering of hundreds of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, the previous day (August 12) turned deadly. A white supremacist drove a car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman, Heather Heyer, and injuring 19 others.[145] According to Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions, that action met the definition of domestic terrorism.[146] During the rally there had been other violence, as some counter-protesters charged at the white nationalists with swinging clubs and mace, throwing bottles, rocks, and paint.[147][148][149] Trump did not expressly mention Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, or the alt-right movement in his remarks on August 13,[150] but the following day (August 14) he did denounce white supremacists as he had done as a candidate the previous year.[151][152] He condemned "the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups".[153] Then the next day (August 15), he again blamed "both sides".[154]
Many Republican and Democratic elected officials condemned the violence and hatred of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and alt-right activists. Trump came under criticism from world leaders[155] and politicians,[156][150] as well as a variety of religious groups[157] and anti-hate organizations[158] for his remarks, which were seen as muted and equivocal.[156]The New York Times reported that Trump "was the only national political figure to spread blame for the 'hatred, bigotry and violence' that resulted in the death of one person to 'many sides'",[156] and said that Trump had "buoyed the white nationalist movement on Tuesday as no president has done in generations".[159] White nationalist groups felt "emboldened" after the rally and planned additional demonstrations.[146]
In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey became the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Hurricane Wilma in 2005. It devastated Houston, Texas, causing extreme flooding, 83 confirmed deaths, and an estimated $70 billion to $200 billion in damage. Harvey's highest winds hit 130mph.
In September, Hurricane Irma hit Florida, killing 102 people and causing over $62.87 billion in damage, making it unofficially the fourth-costliest hurricane on record. The size of the storm spanned across the entire Florida peninsula, and all 67 counties of Florida declared a state of emergency. Irma's highest winds were 185mph. Later that month, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, a US territory, killing over 547 people and causing over $91.6 billion in damage, making it the third-costliest Atlantic hurricane on record. Maria's highest winds were 175mph.
On September 14, 2018, Hurricane Florence hit North Carolina as a Category 1 Hurricane, causing major flooding. 39 deaths were counted and damage is estimated as $17 billion (2018 USD). Florence's highest winds were 140mph. On October 10, Hurricane Michael struck the Florida Panhandle as a Category 5 storm with 160mph winds after undergoing rapid intensification just prior to landfall; it killed 45 people in the US and caused $15 billion in damage.
In November of that year, several wildfires devastated portions of California, most notably the Camp Fire in Butte County in Northern California, which burned over 150,000 acres and destroyed nearly 19,000 structures. With a death toll of 86 and damages up to $10 billion, it was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history and the deadliest US wildfire since 1918.
A series of earthquakes struck Southern California on July 4 and 5, 2019. A magnitude 6.4 earthquake, a foreshock, struck near the desert city of Ridgecrest, on July 4. On July 5, a 7.1 earthquake struck, the main shock, centered near the first. The latter was the largest earthquake to hit Southern California in 20 years. Relatively minor damage resulted from the initial foreshock, though some building fires were reported in Ridgecrest near the epicenter. Effects were felt across much of Southern California as well as parts of Arizona and Nevada, as far north as the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento, and as far south as Baja California, Mexico. An estimated 20 million people experienced the foreshock, and approximately 30 million people experienced the mainshock.[163]
In early August 2023, a series of wildfires broke out in the U.S. state of Hawaii, predominantly on the island of Maui. The wind-driven fires prompted evacuations, caused $5.5 billion in damages, killing at least 100 people and leaving at least 31 others missing in the town of Lahaina, Hawaii.[164]
On January 21, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was detected in Everett, Washington, and the first death occurring on February 6.[176] By February 2, the Trump administration restricted travel to and from China.[177] On March 11, the WHO declared the virus to be a pandemic.[178] In March, many state and local governments imposed "stay at home" orders to slow the spread of the virus, with the goal of reducing patient overload in hospitals. By March 26, New York Times data showed the United States to have the highest number of known cases of any country.[179] By March 27, the country had reported over 100,000 cases.[180] On April 2, at President Trump's direction, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and CDC ordered additional preventive guidelines to the long-term care facility industry.[181] On April 11, the U.S. death toll became the highest in the world when the number of deaths reached 20,000, surpassing that of Italy.[182] On April 19, the CMS added new regulations requiring nursing homes to inform residents, their families and representatives, of COVID-19 cases in their facilities.[183] On April 28, the total number of confirmed cases across the country surpassed 1million.[184] By May 2020, 100,000 Americans had died with COVID-19.[185] This corresponded with a relaxing of lockdown restrictions, leading to a surge of cases in July.[186][187][188]
National, state, and local elections were impacted as a result of the pandemic. Many primary elections scheduled in March and April were postponed and sometimes cancelled.[189]Voting by mail was also widely used as an alternative, with restrictions initially being relaxed to support the influx of mail voters.[190] Campaign events were also altered, with Democratic candidate Joe Biden suspending many in-person rallies. President Trump continued with in-person rallies, receiving widespread criticism.[191][190][192]An outbreak at the White House resulted in at least 48 people testing positive including President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.[193][194][195] This resulted in the cancellation of a scheduled presidential debate between Trump and Biden.
COVID-19 vaccines began to be developed quickly after the pandemic began. In December, the FDA granted emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the Moderna vaccine, followed shortly after by the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine.[196][197]Booster doses were later approved for all 3 vaccines to improve immunity over time.[198] Many companies, universities, and state governments began giving bonuses and rewards in mid-2021 to encourage higher vaccine rates.[199][200] Localities such as New York City, private companies such as United Airlines, and organizations such as the US Army issued vaccine mandates.[201] This was accompanied by an executive order by Biden to enforce a vaccine requirement for large companies, although this was later blocked by the Supreme Court.[202]
From June 2021 to March 2022, United States had greatly suffered from the highly transmissible Deltacron hybrid variant that is combined with Delta and Omicron variant, also known as the recombination event, for example: COVID-19 Delta variant caused a surge in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, especially among all of those who are unvaccinated or fully vaccinated.[203][204] By August of the same year, Delta variant accounted for 99% of all cases of COVID-19, with the country surpassing 35 million cases.[205][203] On December 1, 2021, COVID-19 Omicron Variant has arrived in the United States. However, as of January 2022 as the country became widespread, the United States has now causing a massive increase in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, averaging over 1 million new cases daily.[206][207]
Cases and deaths decreased throughout 2022, leading to President Biden stating his belief in a September interview that the COVID-19 pandemic was "over" in the United States, a statement, which received backlash from many in the medical community.[215]
On May 11, 2023, just six days after the W.H.O. ended its designation of the three-year period of the global COVID-19 emergency of international concern,[216] which estimated report 20 million excess deaths, U.S. federal government ends COVID-19 state of emergency, which remains a public health priority.
A medical technician assigned to the 151st Medical Group conducts a COVID-19 test on a member of the Utah National Guard at a supply warehouse, May 14, 2020.
Barone, Michael. The Almanac of American Politics 2020: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors: Their Records and Election Results, Their States and Districts (2019), 2100 pp, covers all the live politicians with elaborate detail; this series has appeared every two years since 1975
The Almanac of American Politics 2022 (2021), for Congress elected in 2020
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