Americans’ trust in the three branches of the federal government has reached a new low but remains higher for state and local governments, according to a Gallup survey.
The polling company said Tuesday that 43% of respondents expressed confidence in the executive branch, 38% in the legislative branch and 47% in the judicial branch — putting trust in the federal court system “below the majority level for the first time in Gallup’s polling history.”
“The latest decline in Americans’ trust in the judicial branch of the federal government … means this is the first time that none of the three branches is trusted by a majority of Americans,” Gallup said.
Respondents’ confidence increased as the levels of government grew smaller: 57% expressed trust in state government and 67% in local government.
Trust in the three federal branches split sharply along partisan lines. Democrats were more likely to approve of the Democrat-controlled executive and legislative branches than the judiciary, where conservative rulings have become more prominent in the past year.
Gallup found that 87% of Democrats expressed confidence in the executive branch under President Biden, compared to 41% of independents and 7% of Republicans. While 67% of Republicans and 46% of independents expressed trust in the judiciary, only 25% of Democrats did the same.
At the state level, Gallup said a combined 79% of Republicans and Democrats living under a governor from their party expressed “a great deal or fair amount of trust” in their state government. Among those living under a governor from the opposite party, 32% had trust in their state government.
Gallup conducted the randomized national telephone survey of 812 adults Sept. 1-16. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
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