(The Hill) — Americans’ confidence in the federal government has fallen to its weakest point in more than 20 years, with nearly two-thirds of U.S. voters also saying they are unhappy with the country’s current direction, according to a new Fox News survey.
The poll, published Wednesday, showed that just 25 percent of registered voters said they “generally trust” the federal government, while 74 percent said they do not. Another 1 percent said they were unsure.
That trust figure marks a decline from 32 percent in each of the previous two summers, surveys taken before the final six months of the Biden administration and after the first six months of President Trump’s second administration.
Federal trust has largely remained in the low-to-mid 30 percent range since June 2013, the poll found. Its previous low was 31 percent in late June 2023, shortly after Trump was indicted on 37 federal counts tied to allegations that he mishandled classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.
Earlier Fox News polling showed that a majority of voters trusted the federal government in 2002, during George W. Bush’s presidency. Since President Obama’s second term, however, that level has not climbed above 40 percent.
At the same time, skepticism toward Washington has continued to grow over the past decade, with 74 percent of voters now saying they generally do not trust the federal government, according to the survey.
Distrust is especially pronounced among Democrats, with 83 percent saying they currently lack confidence in the federal government, up from 73 percent who said the same last year.
Among Republicans, roughly two-thirds said they do not trust the federal government, while about one-third said they do. Independents were also broadly skeptical, with 8 in 10 expressing distrust and just 18 percent saying they trust the government — unchanged from a year ago.
The polling comes as yet another warning sign for the Trump administration, which has taken a hit in popularity due to the economic turmoil caused by the war with Iran, ahead of the November midterms.
More than half of voters hold a pessimistic outlook on the economy and believe Trump’s economic policies benefit people with more money than them, according to the survey. Only 12 percent think they are getting ahead financially, whereas 44 percent feel they are falling behind and 43 percent believe they are “holding steady.”
The president has repeatedly promised that economic relief would soon follow once the Middle East conflict was resolved, suggesting this week that the U.S. avoided “catastrophe” when it reached a deal with Tehran.
“I didn’t want to see economic catastrophe. If you kept this going, that could have happened,” Trump told reporters in France on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
The stock market rebounded and crude oil prices fell after the agreement, including the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, was announced.
The Fox News poll was conducted from June 12 to June 15 among 1,002 registered U.S. voters. It has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
