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The Tea Party movement is an American conservative movement, loosely allied with the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Members of the movement have called for a reduction of the national debt of the United States and federal budget deficit by reducing government spending, and for lower taxes. The movement opposes government-sponsored universal healthcare and has been described as a mixture of libertarian, populist, and conservative activism. It has sponsored multiple protests and supported various political candidates since 2009. According to the American Enterprise Institute, various polls in 2013 estimate that slightly over 10 percent of Americans identify as part of the movement. The movement began following Barack Obama's first presidential inauguration (in January 2009) when his administration announced plans to bail out certain home mortgage holders through the bankrupt homeowners. On February 19, 2009 CNBC reporter Rick Santelli launched a "rant" against the bailouts on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, calling for a new "tea party," Later, over fifty conservative activists agreed by conference call to coalesce against Obama's agenda and scheduled series of protests, including the 2009 Taxpayer March on Washington. Supporters of the movement subsequently have had a major impact on the internal politics of the Republican Party. Beginning as a grassroots outburst, various local tea party groups eventually began to coalesce, and gained major support from Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a conservative political advocacy group founded by businessmen and political activist David H. Koch. Although the Tea Party is not a party in the classic sense of the word, some research suggests that members of the Tea Party Caucus vote like a third party in Congress. The movement's name refers to the Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773, a watershed event in the launch of the American Revolution. The 1773 event demonstrated against taxation by the British government without political representation for the American colonists, and references to the Boston Tea Party and even costumes from the 1770s era are commonly heard and seen in the Tea Party movement.

The 2018 shutdown of the United States federal government began at midnight EST on Saturday, January 20, 2018, and ended on the evening of Monday, January 22. The shutdown began after a failure to pass legislation to fund government operations and agencies. This stemmed from disputes over the extension of status of persons affected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy, and therefore whether those covered under the program should face deportation. There was also a dispute over whether funding should be allocated towards building a Mexico–United States border wall, a keystone policy during Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The 2018 shutdown began when the Senate failed to overcome a Democratic filibuster of a temporary continuing resolution (an appropriations bill), which requires a 3/5 supermajority to end. The shutdown began on the first anniversary of Donald Trump taking office. The shutdown ended when Senate Democrats agreed to end the filibuster and invoke cloture with the Republican promise that they would allow debate on the DREAM Act before the continuing resolution expires on February 8, 2018. Some liberals have criticized the Democrats decision to end the shutdown without a firm assurance and no guarantee on DACA. President Donald Trump hailed it as a "big win" and said that the Democrats caved in.