Executive branch? Judicial? Legislative? How much do you trust the government?
Bottom Line: In today’s political environment (and the exceedingly negative news coverage from most media) you might be led to think that trust in American government would be at record lows. As we’re closing in on the midterms we’re seeing a much different story.
We certainly have varying views on how much trust we have in the three branches of government but there’s a bit of a theme. The general trend has been a bit of an increase in trust. Surprised? Gallup has tracked this since the early 1970’s (prior to Watergate), so we have decades of information to compare. Our trust in government is highest with...
- Judicial branch – 68%
- Executive branch – 42%
- Legislative branch – 40%
As for how many of us trust them...
Now here’s the thing, despite the noise, trust over three years ago is generally higher. Trust level vs. Three years ago:
- Judicial branch +25%
- Executive branch –1%
- Legislative branch +10%
Surprised? Once again what’s depicted in news media and our actual views are generally vastly different. Solid majorities of Americans view the judicial branch as trustworthy – despite the SCOTUS noise in the media. Only 1% fewer people trust the Presidency with Trump as President compared to Obama and we’re actually far more trusting of the legislative branch, albeit with a minority still trusting.