Americans’ confidence in their own federal government has fallen to its lowest level in more than two decades, according to a new Fox News poll that lays bare just how deeply distrust now runs across the political spectrum.
The survey, conducted June 12 through 15, 2026, found that just 25% of registered voters say they generally trust the federal government, while 74% say they do not and roughly 1% were unsure. That 25% reading is the lowest Fox News has recorded in the more than 20 years it has tracked the question.
A record low for this poll’s two-decade tracking
It is worth being precise about the milestone. This is not a literal “all-time low” for every measure of government trust ever taken, but it is the lowest figure in the long-running Fox News series. Trust had registered 32% in both 2024 and 2025, and the previous bottom in this poll was 31%, set in 2023. The drop to 25% marks a clear step down from even those depressed numbers, suggesting the erosion is accelerating rather than leveling off.
The poll also captured a broader sense of national unease, with a large share of voters expressing dissatisfaction with the direction of the country. Trust in government tends to move with that mood, and right now both readings are pointing in the same direction.
Distrust that crosses party lines
What makes the result especially striking is how bipartisan the collapse has become. Distrust is not confined to one side of the aisle. Roughly 83% of Democrats, about 80% of independents, and even 67% of Republicans say they do not trust the federal government to do the right thing.
That breadth matters. When a clear majority of voters in every political camp shares the same skepticism, the finding stops being a partisan talking point and becomes something closer to a shared national baseline. It is no longer one party reacting to the other holding power. It is a country-wide verdict on whether Washington is delivering.
What is driving the erosion
Pollsters and analysts have long linked declining trust to a sense that government is distant, slow, and unresponsive to everyday concerns. For many households, the disconnect is felt most sharply in pocketbook terms. The cost of housing, health care, and groceries has remained a persistent strain, and when families feel squeezed while the machinery of government seems gridlocked or preoccupied, faith in institutions tends to slip.
Years of partisan conflict, high-profile fights over the rule of law, and a steady drumbeat of crisis-driven headlines have also taken a toll. Each standoff and each unresolved problem chips away at the basic expectation that government can be counted on to function.
Why it matters
Low trust in government is not just an abstract statistic. It shapes whether people participate in civic life, whether they comply with public health and safety guidance, and whether they believe elections and institutions are legitimate. A government that most of its citizens do not trust has a harder time governing, especially in moments that demand collective action.
The encouraging news in the data is that trust is not fixed. It has risen and fallen before, and it can recover. But rebuilding it tends to require something concrete: a government that visibly delivers results for ordinary people, reduces the cost-of-living pressures weighing on families, and demonstrates that the powerful are held to the same rules as everyone else.
For now, the Fox News poll stands as a stark snapshot of a country that has grown deeply skeptical of the institutions meant to serve it, with two out of three Americans across every political camp saying their government has lost their confidence. The open question is whether anyone in Washington treats that as the warning it appears to be.