Trust in US Federal Government Hits Record Low
🤖 AI Generated ImageOnly one in four American voters now say they trust the federal government.
That figure, 25%, is the lowest recorded in more than two decades of Fox News polling — and it arrives at a moment when nearly two-thirds of voters say they're unhappy with the direction of the country altogether.
What the New Numbers Actually Show
The poll, released Wednesday and conducted June 12-15 among 1,002 registered voters, found that 25% of respondents said they "generally trust" the federal government, while 74% said they don't and 1% were unsure.
That's down from 32% recorded in the two previous summer readings — one taken before the final six months of the Biden administration, the other after the first six months of the second Trump administration.
According to The Hill, trust has hovered in the mid-to-low 30s since June 2013, with the previous record low of 31% recorded in late June 2023 — weeks after Trump was indicted on 37 federal charges in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.
Twenty-five percent is a meaningfully lower floor than even that prior record.
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A Two-Decade Decline, Broken Down by Party
Fox News polling dating back to 2002 shows that more than half of voters trusted the federal government when George W. Bush was president.
That number hasn't cleared 40% since the second Obama administration.
The current breakdown by party shows distrust is now the default position across every major group: 83% of Democrats said they don't trust the federal government, up from 73% a year ago.
About two-thirds of Republicans expressed distrust, while roughly a third said the opposite — and among Independents, distrust sits at 80%, against just 18% who said they trust the government, unchanged from a year earlier.
The fact that distrust climbed sharply among Democrats specifically, even as a Republican administration holds the White House, suggests the erosion isn't tracking neatly along partisan lines tied to who's in power.
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🤖 AI Generated ImageThe Economic Anxiety Sitting Underneath the Numbers
The trust collapse is unfolding alongside a specifically economic pessimism.
More than half of voters hold a negative outlook on the economy, and a majority believe Trump's economic policies primarily benefit people wealthier than themselves.
Only 12% of respondents think they're personally getting ahead financially. 44% say they're falling behind, and 43% describe themselves as "holding steady."
Those numbers land directly on top of a White House narrative built around relief that hasn't yet arrived. Trump has repeatedly promised economic improvement once the Iran conflict resolved — telling reporters in France this week that the US avoided "catastrophe" by reaching a deal with Tehran.
"I didn't want to see economic catastrophe. If you kept this going, that could have happened," Trump said, according to Reuters.
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What's Already Changed Since the Deal — and What Hasn't
Some of what Trump pointed to has, in fact, moved.
The stock market rebounded and crude oil prices fell after the Iran agreement was announced, including the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping.
What hasn't moved yet, according to this poll, is the underlying sense of financial security among ordinary voters — the 44% who say they're falling behind didn't register that pessimism before the deal was signed; this is the reading taken in the days immediately after.
That gap between market-level recovery and household-level confidence is precisely the bet the administration is making: that the macro numbers (oil prices, stock indices) will eventually translate into the micro numbers (personal financial security) that actually move a trust figure like 25%.
The poll's margin of error is 3 percentage points, meaning the 25% trust figure could realistically range from 22% to 28% — still a record low under any of those readings.
With midterms in November, the administration has roughly five months for that translation to happen before voters render their own verdict at the polls.
Key Takeaways
- A new Fox News poll found only 25% of registered US voters trust the federal government — the lowest level recorded in more than two decades of polling, down from a prior record low of 31% in June 2023.
- 74% of voters said they don't trust the federal government; 1% were unsure.
- 83% of Democrats, roughly two-thirds of Republicans, and 80% of Independents expressed distrust.
- More than half of voters hold a pessimistic economic outlook; only 12% feel they're getting ahead financially, while 44% feel they're falling behind.
- Trust hasn't exceeded 40% since the second Obama administration, despite topping 50% during George W. Bush's presidency.
- The poll was conducted June 12-15 among 1,002 registered voters, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Sources
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World News Correspondent
Rachel Hayes reports on international affairs, geopolitics, and breaking world news. Based in London, she covers stories shaping the UK and global political landscape.
