The State of Public Trust in Government 2025

Soon after taking office in Jan. 2025, President Donald Trump began dramatically reshaping parts of the federal government with cuts to funding, programs and personnel. These changes have taken place against the backdrop of a crisis of public support where only a minority of Americans say they trust the federal government, a view that has been prevalent for more than four decades.

A new survey conducted by the Partnership for Public Service in the spring of 2025 shows that trust in the federal government remains low. Only 33% of Americans trust the government, while 47% do not and 13% are neutral.

Low levels of trust in which much of the public does not believe the government is operating in their best interest has been a longstanding problem and laid the groundwork for many of the current actions by the Trump administration.

After decades of negative perceptions of government, some members of the public are willing to see any change as better than the status quo. While our survey data has found that the administration’s cuts are generally unpopular, a portion of the population is supportive.

The current level of trust—at 33%—is close to the 35% that expressed trust in 2022. While this number is still low, and confirms a continued crisis, it is an increase from 2024 when only 23% of Americans said they trusted the government.1 This increase over the past year—which is led primarily by a large increase among Republicans—illustrates how much the public’s views of government are shaped by politics.

Now, 42% of Republicans say they trust the federal government, which is four times higher than the 10% who did so one year ago. This change follows the historical pattern of trust being higher among Americans who identify as part of the political party controlling the White House. By contrast, fewer Democrats now trust the government (31%), although the decrease from last year (39%) is smaller than the increase among Republicans.

These changes by partisan affiliation are predictable. Not only is there significant precedent when looking back at polling trends over the past 70 years, it aligns with other research that shows how many Americans associate the federal government with elected officials and politicians, and see the government more favorably when their party is in charge.

Unfortunately, when the public primarily connects the idea of government with elected officials and political appointees, it prevents them from fully understanding the role of the federal government and the work it does on behalf of the American people.

Understanding how the public perceives its government—and the ongoing reasons for distrust—may help to explain what generated support for the administration’s efforts to cut federal personnel and programs.

The federal government continues to have a perception problem.

According to the Partnership’s survey conducted in April 2025, only one-in-three Americans (33%) say they trust the federal government. Nearly half (47%) say they do not trust the government and 13% are neutral.

Low perceptions of the federal government go beyond trust and have existed since the Partnership began studying public opinion in 2021. Each year, far more people say the government’s overall impact is negative than positive. This year, almost half (47%) say the impact on “people like you” is negative, compared with only 39% who say it is positive.

More people now say the impact on the country as a whole is negative (45%) than positive (42%).

Two-thirds of Americans agree the federal government is “corrupt” (67%) compared with only 22% who do not agree. Sixty-one percent agree it is “wasteful,” compared with 24% who do not.

At 33%, the low level of trust in the federal government is close to the levels seen in 2022 when 35% trusted the government. In 2024, the number dropped to 23% before increasing over the past year.

While the level of trust is still low, the slight increase of 10 percentage points over the past year is part of a historical pattern and helps illustrate how the public’s views of government are so often colored by political factors.

This year, four times as many Republicans say they trust the government than the year before. In fact, more Republicans now say they trust the federal government than say they do not (42% compared with 37%). In 2024, only 10% of Republicans said they trusted the federal government while 81% said they did not. This increase coincides with the 2024 presidential election and the inauguration of President Trump.

By contrast, only 31% of Democrats trust the government compared with 56% who do not. That is a decrease from the 39% who trusted the government one year ago.

Among independents this year, only 20% say they are trustful, which is similar to the 19% who did last year. There has been a big shift, however, as far fewer independents now say they do not trust the federal government (48%) than last year (67%), but many more say they “don’t know” or cannot answer the question than last year (16% from 1%).

This shift in levels of trust by party affiliation fits the pattern that has been documented by Pew Research Center and others since the 1960s. Trust is consistently higher among members of the political party that controls the presidency. Republicans were similarly more trusting of the government than Democrats during the first Trump administration.

Trust has grown greatly among younger Republicans

Trump’s ascendancy to the presidency for a second time, along with other changes during the past year, appears to have greatly impacted the views of younger Republicans in particular. Almost half of Republicans under the age of 50 say they trust the government (46%). That is more than five times higher than the 9% who said they trusted the government the year before. Now, only 32% of Republicans under the age of 50 say they do not trust the government, down from 82% one year ago.

Trust has also increased among older Republicans, but not as much. Thirty-eight percent of Republicans ages 50 and over trust the government compared with 42% who do not. That is a large increase from the year before when only 11% trusted the government, but not as much of a jump as for younger Republicans.

Among Democrats, trust has declined significantly for those ages 50 and over. That group dropped from 49% in 2024 to just 27% this year. For Democrats under the age of 50, trust was virtually the same as the previous year.

The same trend that drove the increase of trust in the federal government is evident when asking about other perceptions.

When comparing other survey questions from this year to last, two patterns emerge. First, the percentage of people who have negative views of the federal government has decreased. Second, the percentage of people who say they “don’t know” or can’t answer the question has increased.

Overall, 51% of Americans agree the federal government keeps them safe, up slightly from 47% in 2024. Those who disagree dropped from 51% in 2024 to 35% now. The number who answered they did not know increased from just 3% to 15% this year.

As is true with levels of trust in the government overall, these changes are generally driven by shifts among Republicans. In 2024, only 26% of Republicans said the federal government kept them safe. That number more than doubled to 60% this year. Fewer Democrats agree the government keeps them safe, although the drop is not as large as the increase among Republicans (52% down from 64% last year).

A similar trend exists when Americans are asked about the impact of the federal government on the country. Now, 42% say the impact on the country is positive, the same percentage as in 2022 and up from 31% in 2024. The number of people who disagree dropped dramatically from 66% last year to 45% this year. Now, more than half of Republicans (54%) say the impact is positive, which is more than four times greater than in 2024 when only 12% held a similar view.

Even when asked about people’s personal experiences with the government, the changes are similar. Now, only 33% disagree with the notion that their personal experiences have been mostly positive, a drop from 44% in both 2022 and 2024. This change suggests that the party in power in the White House influences not only how the public views the government as a whole, but even how they view their individual experience with government.

While still the majority view, fewer Americans say the government is wasteful than before

From 2021 to 2024, at least 70% of the public agreed the government was wasteful. In 2025, while still the majority view, the perception that the government is wasteful has decreased across the political spectrum—especially among Republicans and independents. An early Trump administration effort—led largely by the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE— focused on reducing the size of the federal workforce, eliminating programs and reducing perceived waste, fraud and abuse.

Since the Partnership’s survey was conducted about two months into the second Trump administration, it is likely that the public’s thoughts on this issue were colored by the early actions of DOGE, although the specific impact is not clear.

In total, 61% of Americans say the government is wasteful while 24% disagree and 15% say they do not know. That is far less than the 85% who said the government was wasteful one year ago. In 2024, fully 92% of Republicans said the government is wasteful. Now, that number is 69%. It is unclear whether the decrease was due to views that DOGE was being successful and that the government is now more aligned with their policy priorities, or perhaps that the public was learning more about the government’s activities and felt there was less waste than previously thought.

The majority of Americans continue to see the government as corrupt, however. Two-thirds of Americans (67%) now agree with that notion, which is close to the percentages in 2021 and 2022. However, that is down slightly from last year when 74% agreed. Among Republicans, that number was 87% last year and decreased to 72% now.

Looking beyond partisan affiliation, trust in the federal government has generally followed a similar pattern among most demographic groups—with a few exceptions.

As is true with the overall levels of trust, most groups saw a large decrease from 2022 to 2024 before an increase to 2025.

For example, 33% of women say they trust the government now which is the same number as in 2022 and higher than in 2024. Although trust among men has similarly increased over the past year, the number is now slightly lower than in 2022 (32% compared with 37%).

This pattern does not hold true for older Americans—those ages 65 years and above. In both 2022 and 2024, older Americans were more trusting of the government than younger people. This year, however, only 30% say they trust the government, slightly less than each of the younger age groups.

By contrast, younger Americans are far more trusting than they were the previous year. Among people ages 18 to 34, 36% say they trust the government, more than twice as many as in 2024 (15%). People ages 18 to 34 were the least likely age group to say they trusted the government prior to this year but are now the group that trusts the government the most—albeit by a small margin.

Changes in trust levels by education also tell a unique story. Now, levels of trust by education are virtually the same—about one-third of all groups trust the government. But that was not the case in previous years. In 2022, people with post-graduate degrees were more likely to trust the government than people with less education. But the difference that existed in 2022 has virtually vanished in the time since.

For people without a college degree, roughly the same number of people say they trust the government now (33%) as in 2022 (32%). For people with college or post-graduate degrees, there has been a decline when compared with 2022. Now, 34% of those with college degrees trust the government compared with 43% in 2022. Thirty-five percent of those with post-graduate degrees trust the government now, compared with 50% in 2022.

People who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino are slightly more likely to trust the government now (38%) than those who self-identify as Black or African American (33%) or white (30%). That was similar to 2022 but changed in 2024 when African Americans were the group most trusting of the government.

Despite significant attacks on the credibility and value of civil servants, Americans continue to be mostly positive in their views about those working for the federal government. In fact, in some ways, the support for civil servants has increased when compared with previous years.

Trust in civil servants is much higher than mistrust. Almost half (49%) of the country say they trust civil servants, a small increase from previous years and more than twice the amount who say they do not (23%). Another 15% say they are neutral. In 2024, 46% said they trusted civil servants while 42% expressed trust in 2022.

Even among Republicans, most of whom support the workforce and program cuts made by the Trump administration and DOGE, trust is stronger than distrust. Fully 43% of Republicans say they trust civil servants while only 26% do not. That is an improvement from last year when 34% trusted civil servants.

In other ways, negative views of civil servants have declined. In 2024, 35% of Americans disagreed that “most civil servants are competent.” That number has decreased to only 22% this year.

Far fewer people say that civil servants are not committed to helping “people like me” than last year (24% down from 41%) and fewer disagree that civil servants can be trusted to serve leaders of both political parties (28% down from 46%).

The reasons for these changes are not obvious. While the Trump administration has argued the federal workforce is too large and inefficient, it is possible the public has learned more about what the civil service does in recent months. It is also possible that there has been a political reaction in response to unpopular cuts being made by the current White House, or that supporters of the cuts feel that the workers removed from government were poor performers and therefore the current workforce is made up of the most effective employees.

The Trump administration has proposed rule changes that would allow for greater presidential power for hiring and firing civil servants. These include the creation of two new categories of employees, Schedule Policy/Career and Schedule G, and an update to federal “suitability and fitness” criteria that could expedite the removal of certain employees. Such changes would fundamentally alter the purpose and management of the nation’s federal civil service and take us farther from a system that values merit, expertise and professionalism free from political interference.

While there is general agreement among the public that having an expert, apolitical federal workforce is necessary for the country to function effectively, shifts over the past year among Republicans who want to give the president more power over the federal workforce suggest that polarization about the role of the civil service is increasing.

When asked if having an “expert and non-political federal workforce” is critical for a stable economy, 69% of Americans agree while only 11% disagree. When asked if that type of workforce is critical for the “country’s wellbeing,” 72% agree while only 11% disagree.

While support for such a workforce is still significant, there have been some shifts in the past year. In 2024, the overwhelming majority of Americans (87%) agreed a nonpartisan civil service was important for having a strong democracy. Now, that number is down to 66%, led by large decreases among Republicans and independents. Last year, almost 9 in 10 Republicans agreed a nonpartisan civil service was important for a strong democracy, but that number has decreased to 66% this year. The numbers for independents also dropped significantly, although most of the change involved respondents saying they did not know how to answer the question.

The views of Democrats changed only slightly, as 88% agreed last year and now it is 81%.

There has been an even larger change in the views of presidential power in hiring over the past year. Last year, 71% of Americans said that presidents should not have the power to fill federal jobs with people who agree with their policies. That number has declined dramatically to only 47%—also led by major changes among Republicans and independents. Now, only 26% of Republicans oppose presidents having that power, down from 65% last year. For independents, 40% are in opposition now compared with 72% one year ago.

A similar change has occurred when people are asked about whether presidents should have the right to fire civil servants for any reason. Last year, 72% opposed presidents having such power. Now, only 52% disagree. Among Republicans, a majority (60%) now say presidents should be able to fire civil servants for any reason, up from 37% last year.

Undoubtedly, some of that shift among Republicans is a result of the party of the current president and the change from 2024. But an additional factor might be the criticism of federal civil servants posited by the Trump administration.

In 2025, public trust in the federal government remains low—as has been the case for decades. During the past year, there has been a shift in attitudes toward the government, with Republicans more trusting than Democrats now that Donald Trump is president. This change shows how much politics colors people’s perceptions. The current environment appears to be also creating greater partisanship, especially when it comes to views regarding the power of the president to hire and fire civil servants.

The Trump administration’s reductions in government services, programs and the civil service will impact how agencies are able to serve the public. In turn, these cuts will influence how Americans relate to their government and levels of trust. The Partnership will continue to study how such changes to federal government operations, funding and personnel influence public opinion.