History of the United States (2016–present)

The United States of America — Donald Trump Era
2016–present
Donald Trump and Joe Biden meeting at the White House, 2024
Location	United States
Including	War on Terror War on drugs and the opioid epidemic Fourth Industrial Revolution Rise in mass shootings Migrations: New Great Migration Central American migrant caravans California exodus
President(s)	Donald Trump (2017–2021; from 2025) Joe Biden (2021–2025)
Key events	List Black Lives Matter movement Women's March Unite the Right rally 2017 Atlantic hurricane season #MeToo movement Hurricane Florence 2018 California wildfires China–United States trade war First impeachment of Donald Trump U.S.–Mexico–Canada Agreement COVID-19 pandemic 2020 California wildfires George Floyd protests 2020 Atlantic hurricane season January 6 United States Capitol attack Second impeachment of Donald Trump Stop Asian Hate movement Withdrawal from Afghanistan Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization AI boom Support for Ukraine Indictments of Donald Trump 2023 labor strikes Israel–Hamas war protests Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse Attempted assassination of Donald Trump Hurricanes Helene and Milton Killing of Brian Thompson January 2025 Southern California wildfires 2025 US-Canada-Mexico Trade War
Chronology History of the United States (1991–2016)

The history of the United States from 2016 to the present began with the presidential election of 2016, which saw businessman and former Celebrity Apprentice star Donald Trump defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Trump ran on a populist message, enacting tax cuts, immigration restrictions, attempting to "Build a Wall" on the US–Mexico border, and an "America First" foreign policy. In December 2019, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted to pass articles of impeachment against Trump for his alleged role in a scandal involving Ukraine, for which he was subsequently acquitted. In 2020, Trump oversaw the federal government response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession.

The 2020 presidential election saw Joe Biden beat Trump. Trump, along with his supporters, made multiple attempts to overturn the presidential election with false claims of fraud, which culminated with an attack upon the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 in an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power. The attack and Trump's involvement led to his second impeachment and subsequent acquittal.

The presidency of Joe Biden saw events such as the withdrawal from Afghanistan, an escalating trade war with China, support for Ukraine following Russian war invasion, and response to the Israel–Hamas war.

Trump defeated Biden's vice president, Kamala Harris, in the 2024 United States presidential election and was inaugurated on January 20, 2025.

Conflicts

Withdrawal from Afghanistan

Main article: 2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

Failing peace talks and the emergence of ISIS in the country caused the War in Afghanistan to continue on into the Trump Administration. On February 25, 2019, negotiations began between the Taliban and the United States in Qatar and resumed again in December of that year. On February 29, 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed a conditional peace deal in Doha, Qatar, that called for a prisoner exchange within ten days and was supposed to lead to US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021.

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. 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. Following a massive airlift of more than 120,000 people, the US military mission in Afghanistan ended on August 30, 2021.

Middle Eastern crisis

Main articles: Middle Eastern crisis (2023–present); Attacks on US bases in Iraq, Jordan, and Syria during the Gaza war; Red Sea crisis; Operation Prosperity Guardian; 2024 missile strikes in Yemen; and 2024 Beirut US embassy shooting

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike groups during the Middle Eastern crisis

Following the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the United States gave strong support for Israel as they prepared to launch an invasion of the Gaza Strip. This led to a proxy war between Iran and the United States, with Iran backing several organizations to launch attacks against the United States. Between October 2023–December 2024, the United States was attacked 223 times by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the Iranian military, the Houthi movement in Yemen, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and various other Iranian proxies across Iraq, Jordan, and Syria, including the Popular Mobilization Forces. During the proxy war, the United States launched numerous retaliatory strikes against the Iranian-supported "Axis of Resistance" informal alliance.

Politics

First Trump administration

Main articles: 2016 United States presidential election, First presidency of Donald Trump, and Timeline of the Donald Trump presidencies § First presidency (2017–2021)

2016 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump campaigns at a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, October 29, 2016.

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.

Women's March on Washington

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.

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. 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.

On Election Day, November 8, Trump carried 306 electoral votes against Clinton's 232. He made considerable inroads into the old Rust Belt, carrying states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that had been safe Democratic territory since 1988. However, Donald Trump did not win the popular vote. This was the fifth time in American history that the outcome of the Electoral College did not match the outcome of the popular vote, the others happening in 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000. The GOP also retained control a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, controlling all branches of government. Allegations of Russian interference on behalf of Trump's candidacy in the 2016 election caused controversy during and after the election.

On January 20, 2017, Trump took the oath of office as the 45th US president in the face of large-scale demonstrations from protesters unhappy with the outcome of the election and of the incoming president. On his first day in office, he undertook a series of executive orders aimed at dismantling the Affordable Care Act and Trans-Pacific Partnership, and also moved to pass a temporary ban on refugees from several Middle Eastern states. This last action met with widespread criticism, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed it as unconstitutional. On June 26, the Supreme Court overturned the 9th Circuit's decision, ruling that part of President Trump's executive order is constitutional. One of Trump's major accomplishments was nominating Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. On April 10, Gorsuch was sworn in. In 2018, President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to replace the departing Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. The nomination process soon became contentious after several women, most notably Palo Alto University psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford, accused Kavanaugh of past instances of sexual assault. After a series of hearings, the US Senate voted to confirm Kavanaugh despite the controversy.

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). The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that, under the Act, individuals and pass-through entities like partnerships and S corporations would receive about $1,125 billion in net benefits (i.e. net tax cuts offset by reduced healthcare subsidies) over 10 years, while corporations would receive around $320 billion 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. 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.

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.

President Trump signs the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act into law on March 6, 2020.

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.

The effects of the tax cuts resulted in the US economy stabilizing for a short period between early 2018 and September 2019. During that time, the 2018 midterm elections took place. The elections had the highest voter turnout of any midterm election since 1914; the Democratic Party regained majority control of the House of Representatives and the Republican Party expanded their majority in the Senate even though they received a minority of the popular vote.

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.

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.

On December 18, 2019, the House of Representatives brought forth two articles of impeachment (abuse of power and obstruction of Congress) against President Trump. Both articles were passed, impeaching Trump. Trump became the third president in American history to be impeached, after Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.

On December 20, 2019, Trump signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, establishing the United States Space Force as the sixth armed service branch, with Air Force General John "Jay" Raymond, the head of Air Force Space Command and US Space Command, becoming the first Chief of Space Operations.

On January 3, 2020, President Trump responded to an attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad by ordering a drone strike against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps's commanding general Qasem Soleimani and the Popular Mobilization Forces leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at Baghdad International Airport. The incident sharply escalated a period of already strong tensions with Iran and lead to missile strikes on US military forces in Iraq on January 8, 2020. At the same time, Iranian military forces mistakenly shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, leading to domestic unrest and international condemnation.

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 September 2020, the death of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg prompted President Trump to nominate Amy Coney Barrett to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. Barrett's nomination was controversial because of its proximity to the 2020 presidential election. The Senate voted to confirm Barrett in a partisan vote.

Police release tear gas outside the United States Capitol at the January 6 United States Capitol attack.

President Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, who previously served as Vice President under President Barack Obama. He became the first president to lose the popular vote in both elections contested, as well as the first president since George H. W. Bush's loss in 1992 to be defeated after his single term. Biden himself became the oldest person to win a United States presidential election and was the oldest president upon his inauguration. The election also saw Kamala Harris become the first woman, as well as first person of African-American and Asian-American ancestry, to be elected as Vice President.

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, 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. 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 tempore Chuck 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. The plans for January 6 failed to come to fruition after Pence refused to follow the campaign's proposals. 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). 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.

Biden administration

Main articles: 2020 United States presidential election, Presidency of Joe Biden, and Timeline of the Joe Biden presidency

Afghanistan withdrawal and Kabul airlift, August 2021

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.

On the first day of his presidency, Biden made an effort to revert President Trump's energy policy by restoring U.S. participation in the Paris Agreement and revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. He also halted funding for the Mexico–United States border wall. On his second day, he issued a series of executive orders to reduce the impact of COVID-19, including invoking the Defense Production Act of 1950, and set an early goal of achieving one hundred million COVID-19 vaccinations in the United States in his first 100 days.

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. A new Speaker, Mike Johnson (R-LA) was elected on October 25.

President Biden meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, February 2023

In foreign policy, Biden completed the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan, declaring an end to nation-building efforts and shifting U.S. foreign policy toward strategic competition with China and, to a lesser extent, Russia. However, during the withdrawal, the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized control, leading to Biden receiving bipartisan criticism. He responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 by imposing sanctions on Russia as well as providing Ukraine with over $100 billion in combined military, economic, and humanitarian aid. Biden also approved a raid which led to the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, the leader of the Islamic State, and approved a drone strike which killed Ayman Al Zawahiri, leader of Al-Qaeda. Biden called for the expansion of NATO with the addition of Finland and Sweden, and rallied NATO allies in support of Ukraine.

After the October 7, 2023 attack led by Hamas on Israel, President Biden promised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would support Israel and the United States gave Israel military aid. A number of Americans were among those taken as hostages by Hamas during the attack and a number of Americans also died. 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'". 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. In response to further attacks on shipping a series of airstrikes were done in Yemen upon them in January 2024 and later in February also. 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. 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. A series of controversial protests at university campuses happened across the country as a result of the Israel-Hamas war.

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. Both President Biden and Donald Trump became the presumptive nominees for their respective parties on March 12, 2024. 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. Later on the campaign trail on July 13 Trump was subjected to an assassination attempt. Trump selected US Senator JD Vance as his running mate on July 15. 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. As a result of widespread Democratic concern, Biden dropped out of the race the next month. 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. Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate on August 6. Harris became the presumptive nominee on August 2 before later on becoming the official one when she accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on August 22. Trump and Harris participated in one presidential debate together on September 10 while Vance and Walz had a debate on October 1.

Democratic backsliding and Second Trump administration

Main article: Democratic backsliding in the United States

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. Donald Trump would become the second nonconsecutive elected president being the first since Grover Cleveland was reelected to a second term in 1892. 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. 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. He is the oldest president at his inauguration at 78 years old, beating his predecessor Joe Biden's record by several months. 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. The V-Dem Democracy indices's electoral democracy index score for the United States peaked in 2015 and declined sharply after 2016, for which year it was also downgraded to "flawed democracy" by the Economist Intelligence Unit in its annual Democracy Index report. Both V-Dem and Freedom House downgraded the United States in 2018. 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. Grumbach also states "policies are more varied across the states as red and blue party coalitions implement increasingly distinct agendas." This backsliding has been accompanied by legislation restricting the civil rights of gender and sexual minorities, abortion rights, and voting rights.

Societal trends

Religion

  Christian (66%)

  Unaffiliated (18%)

  Agnostic (5%)

  Atheist (5%)

  Jewish (2%)

  Muslim (1%)

  Hindu (1%)

  Buddhist (1%)

  Unitarian Universalist (0.5%)

  Other religions (2%)

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. 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. 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. 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.

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.

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.

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. 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. 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.

Between 2008 and 2018 the national public transit ridership declined by 6% in the 10-year period overall. Honolulu opened a metro system in 2023, making it the first metro system in Hawaii.

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. 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.

Recreation and leisure

The United States did not host either a Summer Olympic Games or a Winter one during the late 2000s and 2010s but one is currently scheduled for 2028 in Los Angeles. 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.

Crime and violence

Main article: Crime in the United States

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. 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 which has been attributed to a trend on TikTok about stealing Kia and Hyundai cars regarding a security vulnerability in them. Both companies responded by doing a software upgrade to prevent this. 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 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. 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.

Continuing the increase in high-profile mass school shootings seen in the late 1990s and 2000s, additional school shootings shocked the country in the 2010s and 2020s, the deadliest of which were the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (2012), the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting (2018), and the Robb Elementary School shooting (2022). These shootings heightened the debate over gun politics and continued the public dialogue about improving mental health care and school safety.

The Las Vegas sign adorned with flowers a week after the deadliest mass shooting in American history took place on the Las Vegas Strip

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.

Hate crimes

Main article: Hate crimes in the United States

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.

On June 12, 2016, a mass shooting in a Florida gay nightclub killed 50 people, including the man responsible for it. It surpassed 2007's Virginia Tech shooting as the deadliest mass shooting in American history, and was also classified as a terrorist attack and a hate crime against the LGBT community. A rise in attacks and killings of transgender individuals also occurred, with attention on underreporting in both statistics and media attention. The Anthony Avalos killing and a 2022 mass shooting in Colorado Springs have continually brought renewed attention to attacks against the LGBT community.

On October 27, 2018, a gunman opened fire at the Tree of Life synagogue during Shabbat morning services, killing 11 people and injuring six more. The attack was the deadliest ever against the Jewish community in America; many of those killed had been Holocaust survivors. The shooting brought awareness to an increase in antisemitism.

Hate crimes based on race continued to be the leading motive. White supremacy attacks against black Americans garnered significant public attention, as did increasing attacks on Americans of Mexican descent and Americans of Asian descent. Examples include the 2019 El Paso shooting, 2022 Buffalo shooting, and an increase in Anti-Asian attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Domestic terrorism

Main articles: Domestic terrorism in the United States, Right-wing extremist terrorism in the US, and White supremacy terrorism in the US

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.

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.

2020 was marked by a rise in domestic terrorist threats and widespread conspiracy theories around mail-in voting and COVID-19. 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. 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. The January 6 United States Capitol attack was considered by many to be a domestic terror attack. The 2022 elections saw continued attempts of intimidation, and concern for attacks, at voting stations and election offices around the country.

Race

See also: Racism in the United States

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.

Black Lives Matter Movement

Main articles: Black Lives Matter and 2020-2022 United States racial unrest

George Floyd protests in Washington DC. H St. Lafayette Square

Racially-charged protests erupted in the wake of the July 5, 2016 shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the July 6 shooting of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. On July 7, towards the end of one of these protests in Dallas, Texas, Micah Xavier Johnson ambushed and fired upon a group of police officers, killing five officers and injuring nine others. Two civilians were also wounded. Johnson was an Army Reserve Afghan War veteran who was reportedly angry over police shootings of black men and stated that he wanted to kill white people, especially white police officers. Following the shooting, Johnson fled inside a building on the campus of El Centro College. Police followed him there, and a standoff ensued. In the early hours of July 8, police killed Johnson with a bomb attached to a remote control bomb disposal robot. It was the first time US law enforcement used a robot to kill a suspect. The shooting was the deadliest incident for US law enforcement officers since the September 11 attacks in 2001 and saw a massive uprising of public support for US police officers in the form of the Blue Lives Matter movement.

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.

Unite the Right rally

Main articles: Unite the Right rally and Racial views of Donald Trump

Robert E. Lee monument in New Orleans being lowered as part of a widespread removal of Confederate monuments and memorials, May 19, 2017

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. According to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, that action met the definition of domestic terrorism. 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. Trump did not expressly mention Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, or the alt-right movement in his remarks on August 13, but the following day (August 14) he did denounce white supremacists as he had done as a candidate the previous year. He condemned "the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups". Then the next day (August 15), he again blamed "both sides".

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 and politicians, as well as a variety of religious groups and anti-hate organizations for his remarks, which were seen as muted and equivocal. 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'", and said that Trump had "buoyed the white nationalist movement on Tuesday as no president has done in generations". White nationalist groups felt "emboldened" after the rally and planned additional demonstrations.

The End Domestic Terrorism rally (sometimes referred to by the slogan "Better Dead Than Red") was a Proud Boys demonstration held in Portland, Oregon, on August 17, 2019. The event received national attention.

Disasters

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 130 mph.

President Donald Trump speaks in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in October 2017

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 185 mph. 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 175 mph.

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 140 mph. On October 10, Hurricane Michael struck the Florida Panhandle as a Category 5 storm with 160 mph 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.

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.

President Joe Biden surveys damage from Hurricane Helene in October 2024

In September and October 2024, Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit the Southeastern United States. Helene killed over 230 people and caused severe flooding. Milton killed over 24 after making landfall in western Florida. The two hurricanes caused conspiracy theories and distrust in the federal government.

A series of destructive wildfires began in the Greater Los Angeles area in early January 2025, including the Palisades, Eaton, and Hughes fires. Exacerbated by drought conditions and the high-speed Santa Ana winds, they collectively burned over 50,000 acres of land and damaged more than 17,000 structures, resulting in at least 28 deaths and the evacuations of 200,000 people.

On March 26, 2024, the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland collapsed after colliding with the container ship Dali. The bridge collapse resulted in the deaths of 6 people, as well as the closure of the Port of Baltimore, which sees significant automobile imports and coal exports. The collapse is estimated to cost $1.7 billion in supply chain disruptions.

COVID-19 pandemic

Main articles: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and COVID-19 pandemic

Weekly confirmed COVID-19 deaths

On January 21, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was detected in Everett, Washington, and the first death occurring on February 6. By February 2, the Trump administration restricted travel to and from China. On March 11, the WHO declared the virus to be a pandemic. 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. By March 27, the country had reported over 100,000 cases. 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. 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. 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. On April 28, the total number of confirmed cases across the country surpassed 1 million. By May 2020, 100,000 Americans had died with COVID-19. This corresponded with a relaxing of lockdown restrictions, leading to a surge of cases in July.

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. Voting by mail was also widely used as an alternative, with restrictions initially being relaxed to support the influx of mail voters. 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. An outbreak at the White House resulted in at least 48 people testing positive including President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. 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. Booster doses were later approved for all 3 vaccines to improve immunity over time. Many companies, universities, and state governments began giving bonuses and rewards in mid-2021 to encourage higher vaccine rates. Localities such as New York City, private companies such as United Airlines, and organizations such as the US Army issued vaccine mandates. 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.

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. By August of the same year, Delta variant accounted for 99% of all cases of COVID-19, with the country surpassing 35 million cases. 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.

By February and March 2022, all 50 states and many localities began to lift restrictions and mask mandates. In his 2022 State of the Union Address, President Biden announced a new national strategy against the pandemic, including an increased emphasis on antiviral pills and combating new variants. On April 18, 2022, the federal transportation mask mandate, which had been extended to May 3 by the Biden administration on the advice of the CDC, was ended nationwide by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Florida. As of May 13, 2022, United States has surpassed 1 million COVID-19-related deaths, which becoming the deadliest pandemic in American and our nations' history since two World Wars and Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 and 1920.

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.

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, 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.

Impact on economy and society

The impact of the pandemic was widespread across social and economic sectors. COVID-19 lockdowns contributed to mass changes in social behavior for Americans. COVID-19 also had immediate consequences for prison populations, public transport, and cultural events such as sports. School closures also contributed to a learning gap for students as well as a rise in mental health concerns. Nearly all schools and universities transitioned to a completely online or hybrid method of teaching in spring 2020. Racial disparities were also exasperated by the pandemic, with a disproportionate number of cases being observed amongst Black and Latino populations. These groups were also more likely to die from COVID-19 and less likely to have received a vaccine. Native American reservations were also hit particularly hard, with lack of access to vaccines contributing to higher cases. Anti-Asian racism and xenophobia was also widely reported due to perceived Chinese faulthood for the virus. The economy entered a recession following an initial stock market crash in February 2020. National unemployment rose to a high of 14.7% in April 2020. Long lasting economic effects continued throughout the early 2020s resulting in supply-chain issues and a period of inflation.

See also

• First presidency of Donald Trump
• Presidency of Joe Biden
• Second presidency of Donald Trump
• Outline of United States history
• Timeline of the history of the United States (1990–2009)
• Timeline of the history of the United States (2010–present)
• Timeline of modern American conservatism
• List of federal political scandals in the United States
• Category:2010s in the United States
• Category:2020s in the United States
• 2010s
• 2020s

Further reading

• Alter, Jonathan. The Promise: President Obama, Year One (2010) table of contents, excerpt, search
• 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
• Lozada, Carlos (October 2020). What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-982145-62-0. Pulitzer Prize winning critic evaluates 150 recent books on Trump Administration.
• Watson, Robert P., ed. The Obama Presidency: A Preliminary Assessment (State University of New York Press; 2012) 443 pages; essays by scholars
• Whipple, Chris. The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House (Scribner, 2023)excerpt
• Zelizer, Julian E. ed. The Presidency of Barack Obama: A First Historical Assessment (2018) excerpt
• Zelizer, Julian E. ed. The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment (2022) excerpt

External links

• US History at Wikibooks
• Postwar United States travel guide from Wikivoyage