Many posts have discussed public trust in institutions and political leaders.
Just 17% of Americans now say they trust the government in Washington to do what is right “just about always” (2%) or “most of the time” (15%).
While trust in government has been low for decades, the current measure is one of the lowest in the nearly seven decades since the question was first asked by the National Election Study, and it is lower than it was last year (22%).
We regularly ask Americans whether the federal government makes them feel basically content, frustrated or angry. Today, 49% say they feel frustrated. Another 26% say they are angry, and 23% say they are basically content, according to a Pew Research Center survey of 3,445 U.S. adults conducted Sept. 22-28 (just before the 43-day government shutdown)
Frustration is common across the political spectrum regardless of which party holds the presidency. But the shares of Republicans and Democrats feeling anger and contentment shift dramatically depending on who’s in the White House.
Still, the partisan gaps in these views are wider now than at any point since we first asked this question in 1997. The share of Democrats who are angry toward the federal government has hit a new high:
