2018–2019 United States federal government shutdown
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From December 22, 2018, until January 25, 2019, the United States federal government entered a shutdown. It was the second and final federal government shutdown involving furloughs during the first presidency of Donald Trump. It occurred when the 115th Congress and Trump could not agree on an appropriations bill to fund the operations of the federal government for the 2019 fiscal year, or a temporary continuing resolution that could extend the deadline for passing a bill. The Antideficiency Act prohibits federal departments or agencies from conducting non-essential operations without appropriations legislation in place. As a result, nine executive departments with around 800,000 employees had to shut down partially or in full, affecting about a quarter of government activities and causing employees to be furloughed or required to work without being paid. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the shutdown cost the American economy at least $11 billion USD, excluding indirect costs that were difficult to quantify.
The shutdown stemmed from an impasse over Trump's demand for $5.7 billion in federal funds for a U.S.–Mexico border wall. In December 2018, the Senate unanimously passed an appropriations bill without wall funding, and the bill appeared likely to be approved by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Trump. After Trump faced heavy criticism from some right-wing media outlets and pundits for appearing to back down on his campaign promise to "build the wall", he announced that he would not sign any appropriations bill that did not fund its construction. As a result, the House passed a stopgap bill with funding for the wall, but it was blocked in the Senate by the threat of a Democratic filibuster.
In January 2019, representatives elected in the November 2018 election took office, giving the Democrats a majority in the House. The House immediately voted to approve the appropriations bill that had previously passed the Senate unanimously and included no funding for the wall. For several weeks, Trump maintained that he would veto any bill that did not fund an entire border wall, and Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell blocked the Senate from considering any appropriations legislation that Trump would not support, including the bill that had previously passed. Democrats and some Republicans opposed the shutdown and passed multiple bills to reopen the government, arguing that the government shutdown amounted to taking civil servants "hostage" and that negotiations could only begin once the government was reopened.
On January 25, 2019, Trump endorsed a stopgap bill to reopen the government until February 15 to allow for negotiations to take place on an appropriations bill. However, he reiterated his demand for border wall funding and said that he would shut down the government again or declare a national emergency and use military funding to build the wall if Congress did not appropriate the funds by February 15. With a veto-proof majority, both houses of Congress passed an appropriations bill on February 14 that included $1.375 billion for 55 miles of steel fencing along the border. The following day, Trump declared a national emergency to fund the wall, after being unsatisfied with the funding in the appropriations bill.
The end of the shutdown on January 25 occurred several hours after the Federal Aviation Administration was forced to limit flights at several major airports due to a high incidence of sick leave taken by air traffic controllers, who had been required to work during the shutdown without receiving paychecks. Though never claimed as a strike action, the development was widely credited as precipitating the shutdown's end.
Trump's approval rating dropped during the shutdown. A majority of Americans opposed exploitation of the shutdown as a negotiating strategy and held Trump responsible for the shutdown: A CBS News poll found that 71% of Americans considered the border wall "not worth the shutdown" and a Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 53% of Americans blamed Trump and Republicans for the shutdown, compared to 34% who blamed Democrats and 10% who blamed both parties.