25% Trust Government Majority of the Time; 35% Rarely or Never Do

Publication Date: 06/28/2026 5:00 AM CST

25% Trust Government Majority of the Time; 35% Rarely or Never Do

Publication: 06/28/2026 5:00 AM CST

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Only 25% of registered voters trust the federal government to do the right thing a majority of the time. This is down 1 point from May, but the number has been fairly steady since we began recording about 2 years ago.

Meanwhile, deep skepticism is rising: 35% of voters now "Rarely" or "Never" trust the federal government, a 4-point increase from last month.

A 50-Year Decline

This distrust is part of a long-term trend. It has been over 50 years since a majority of Americans trusted the government to do the right thing a majority of the time.

Partisan Shifts and Political Talk

Trust levels usually favor the party occupying the White House as current data shows:

Republicans: An optimistic 34% trust the federal government all or most of the time, up 1 point from May.
Democrats: Just 16% trust the government a majority of the time, down 2 points from May.

Among voters who talk politics every or nearly every day, 40% maintain trust in the federal government.

This data is from a Napolitan News Service survey of 1,000 Registered Voters conducted online by Scott Rasmussen, June 17-18, 2026. RMG Research, Inc., conducted the field work for the survey. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.1.