The American public’s trust in major institutions is near an all-time low, according to a recent Gallup poll.
The survey, which the firm conducted from June 1-15, found that 27 percent of 1,001 respondents had either a great deal of confidence or average confidence in 14 core U.S. institutions.
That is 1 percentage point lower than the share of respondents who said so last year, and a single point above the record low from 2023. Gallup started surveying Americans on the subject in 1993.
The telephone survey had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
The institutions Gallup asked respondents about include seven in the public sector: the presidency; Congress; the Supreme Court; the military; public schools; the criminal justice system; and the police.
Gallup also surveyed how respondents felt about seven private sector institutions: banks; big business; organized labor; the medical system; newspapers; television news; and the church and organized religion combined.
Of those 14 entities, the military garnered confidence from the largest share of respondents, at 61 percent. The armed forces were followed by the police, church and organized religion, banks and the medical system in the top five, although none of those four institutions received confidence from a majority of respondents.
As for Congress and the presidency, 9 percent and 27 percent of respondents had confidence in those entities, respectively. Those marks are slightly above the low point for the two institutions, which both reached in June 2022 — with former President Biden in office and Democrats in control of both chambers of the legislative branch.
The approval rating of President Trump, meanwhile, remains well below 50 percent as he approaches the 18-month mark of his second term and Republican lawmakers face voters in November. Decision Desk HQ’s running average of polling has Trump’s mean approval rating at 42.5 percent as of Tuesday, while his average disapproval rating is 54.9 percent.
Trump’s average approval rating has dipped below 40 percent multiple times since late March and has not exceeded 45 percent since October 2025. It has rebounded slightly, however, from 39 percent on June 20 — near the low point of his second term.
