Americans Losing Trust In U.S. Government

A new Gallup Poll has shown that Americans continue to distrust all three branches of the federal government.

The annual Governance survey by Gallup shows that currently, Americans’ trust in the judicial branch of the federal government is around 47%. This marks the first time that the overall levels have dropped below a majority.

The executive branch was only shown to have 43% trust, which is only 3 points higher than its greatest low after the Watergate incident.

The legislative branch has taken the greatest hit with 38%. However, this is nowhere near the lowest score it has received as it has previously dropped to as low as 28%.

The first annual survey by Gallup occurred in 1972. At the time two-thirds of Americans appeared to trust all three branches of the federal government.

The executive and legislative branches have remained at similar levels over the past year but the legislative branch has taken a hit over the past year. This in part has been the result of the Supreme Court’s controversial rulings.

The legislative branch has not managed to rise above 40% in the levels of trust since 2010. In 2014 it hit a record low of 28%. The executive branch has also widely remained under 50% since 2006, with the only time it had higher trust levels being during certain periods of the Obama era.

Local governments appear to be performing much better as most people have 57% in their state government and 67% trust in their local government.