Public confidence in national institutions continues to trend downward among American voters, according to a new survey.
A Gallup poll found trust in seven of the 16 institutions surveyed this year had significant drops since last year’s historically low records. The U.S. military and medical system suffered the worst losses — they were both down four percentage points.
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The five other institutions that saw considerable drops were small businesses, police, banks, public schools, and organized labor.
The Supreme Court and the presidency did not see major shifts in public opinion between 2022 and now, but each was already at a record low. This year, the Supreme Court came in at a 27% confidence rating with the presidency now at 26%. Both institutions received a bit of an increase from last year.
The poll did not take into account the last Supreme Court rulings in June — it was conducted prior to the end of the month, the Gallup press release noted. Therefore, the final results may not be entirely representative of current public opinion regarding both the high court and the presidency.
The other 14 institutions with their respective ratings were: small businesses at 65%, the military at 60%, the police at 43%, the medical system at 34%, the church/organized religion at 32%, banks at 26%, public schools at 26%, large technology companies at 26%, organized labor at 25%, newspapers at 18%, the criminal justice system at 17%, television news at 14%, big business at 14%, and Congress at the bottom with 8%.
Higher education was another institution listed in the survey. However, Gallup is choosing to publish a separate report on that.
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The results also included institutional trust determined by partisan alignment, with some institutions being more divisive than others. For example, Republicans largely lacked confidence in the presidency and public schools while Democrats had the opposite opinion. On the other hand, Democrats largely lacked confidence in the Supreme Court compared to Republicans.
Gallup surveyed a total of 1,013 respondents from June 1-22 for the poll, and it had a margin of error of 4%.