She was formally re-elected to the speakership at the start of the 116th Congress on January 3, 2019. Pelosi "clinched the speakership after weeks of whittling down opposition from some fellow Democrats seeking a new generation of leadership. The deal to win over holdouts put an expiration date on her tenure: she promised not to stay more than four years in the job". Two hundred twenty House Democrats voted to elect Pelosi speaker, while 15 other House Democrats cast their ballots for someone else or voted present.
On 4 January 2019, around 300 Arakan Army insurgents launched pre-dawn attacks on four border police outposts—Kyaung Taung, Nga Myin Taw, Ka Htee La and Kone Myint—in northern Buthidaung Township.
Following the attacks, the Office of the President of Myanmar held a high-level meeting on national security in the capital Naypyidaw on 7 January 2019, and instructed the Defense Ministry to increase troop deployments in the areas that were attacked and to use aircraft if necessary.
Kenin greatly improved in 2019, rising from outside the top 50 at the start of the year to on the cusp of the top ten by the end of the season. She began her year by winning her first WTA doubles title at the Auckland Open alongside Eugenie Bouchard. The following week, she won her maiden WTA singles title at the Hobart International without dropping a set during the event. She upset the top seed and No. 19, Caroline Garcia, in the first round before defeating Anna Karolína Schmiedlová in the final. With this success, Kenin rose to what was at the time a career-best ranking of No. 37.
On 15 January 2019, May's government was defeated in the House of Commons by a margin of 230 votes (202 in favour and 432 opposed) in a vote on her deal to leave the European Union. It was the largest majority against a United Kingdom government in history.
On 17 January 2019, 97-year-old Philip was involved in a car crash as he pulled out onto a main road near the Sandringham Estate. An official statement said he was uninjured. An eyewitness who came to the prince's aid described having to wipe the blood off his hands. The driver and a passenger of the other car were injured and taken to hospital. Philip attended the hospital the next morning as a precaution. He apologized, and three weeks later voluntarily surrendered his driving license.
On January 23, 2019, Maduro announced that Venezuela was breaking ties with the United States following Trump's announcement of recognizing Juan Guaidó, the Venezuelan opposition leader, as the interim president of Venezuela.
At the start of the 116th Congress, Pelosi opposed President Trump's attempts to use the 2018–19 federal government shutdown (which she called a "hostage-taking" of civil servants) as leverage to build a substantial wall on the American border. Pelosi declined to allow Trump to give the State of the Union Address in the House of Representatives chamber while the shutdown was ongoing. After several news polls showed Trump's popularity sharply falling due to the shutdown, on January 25, 2019, Trump signed a stopgap bill to reopen the government without any concessions regarding a border wall for three weeks up until February 15 to allow for negotiations to take place to approve an appropriations bill that both parties could agree on. However, Trump reiterated his demand for the border wall funding and said 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, reopening the federal government .
On 28 January 2019, U.S. federal prosecutors formally indicted Meng and Huawei with thirteen counts of bank and wire fraud (in order to mask sale of U.S. technology in Iran that is illegal under sanctions), obstruction of justice, and misappropriating trade secrets. The Department also filed a formal extradition request for Meng with Canadian authorities that same day.
In January 2019, The New York Times quoted senior administration officials as saying Trump has privately suggested on multiple occasions that the United States should withdraw from NATO. The next day Trump said the United States is going to "be with NATO one hundred percent" but repeated that the other countries have to "step up" and pay more.
During much of Trump's presidency, Democrats were divided on the question of impeachment. Fewer than 20 representatives in the House supported impeachment by January 2019; after the Mueller Report was released in April and special counsel Robert Mueller testified in July, this number grew to around 140 representatives.