This is a list of events in the year 2018 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government
President: Donald Trump (R-New York) Vice President: Mike Pence (R-Indiana) Chief Justice: John Roberts (New York) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) Senate Majority Leader: Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) Congress: 115th
Events
January
January 1
The 2018 North American cold wave takes place, with record low temperatures in the Midwestern and Eastern United States. Times Square in New York City has a temperature of , with wind chill, in addition to Omaha having a temperature of on December 30, 2017, lower than the previous record set in 1884. Retail sale of marijuana begins in California, the largest U.S. state to allow the sale of marijuana for recreational use. January 3 – President Donald Trump boasts on Twitter that his nuclear button is "much bigger" and "more powerful" than North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's. January 6 – The 2017–18 United States flu season causes dozens of deaths. January 8 – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that 2017 was the costliest year on record for climate and weather-related disasters in the United States. January 9– The 2018 Southern California landslides occur, killing at least 13 people, and injuring 25. The main damage occurs in Montecito, California, which was nearly burned by the Thomas Fire a month prior. January 10– The city council of Washington, D.C., renames the street outside Russia's embassy after Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician and critic of Vladimir Putin who was shot dead outside the Kremlin. January 11 – During a meeting with lawmakers about immigration, President Trump is reported to have asked, "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" His remarks are condemned as "racist" and "shocking" by a UN spokesman. (comp. Donald Trump racial views) The government of Botswana demands a clarification, and Ambassador Earl R. Miller is asked if the USDS regards Botswana as a "shithole" country. The event is termed by many media outlets "Shitholegate". January 12 – A Baltimore woman who was a patient at the University of Maryland Medical Center is taken outside and left by hospital employees in freezing temperatures wearing nothing but her hospital gown and socks. She is stranded until bystander Imanu Baraka calls 911. January 13 – The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency sends a false alarm warning of an incoming ballistic missile attack, causing widespread panic across the state. January 15 – Turpin case: Police in California arrest a couple, 57-year-old computer engineer at Northrop Grumman David Allen Turpin and his wife, 49-year-old Louise Anna Turpin, who allegedly held their 13 children captive, some chained to beds in the dark. January 16 Democrat Patty Schachtner wins the special election for Wisconsin's 10th Senate District, the same district President Trump won by 17 points. A meteor is reported near Michigan that causes a magnitude 2.0 earthquake. January 18 – Scotland Yard reveals that U.S. actor Kevin Spacey is being investigated over a third accusation of sexual assault in the UK, from 2005. January 20 – Senate Democrats block a bill that would have kept the government running until mid-February and the government shutdown of January 2018 begins. January 22 Amazon opens the first Amazon Go store to the public, the first completely cashier-less grocery store, located in Seattle. Minnie Mouse receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in recognition of her 90th anniversary. January 23 – A tsunami alert is triggered after an 8.0-magnitude earthquake is recorded off the southern Alaskan coast. January 24 Disgraced Olympic gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar receives a prison sentence of up to 175 years after testimony from nearly 160 of his victims. President Trump attends the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland. January 30 – President Trump gives his first official State of the Union Address. 75 percent of State of the Union viewers approved of Trump's address.
