America's trust in government is plummeting, poll shows

Here’s more bad news for the federal government. Not only do Americans not approve of the job performance of President Barack Obama and Congress, but their trust in the three branches of government is on a steep decline — and at or near all-time lows.

A new Gallup poll shows Americans’ view of the legislative branch has hit a new low, with only 28 percent saying they trust it. Trust in the executive branch fell 8 percentage points to 43 percent. While the judicial branch is the highest at 61 percent, that’s the lowest it’s been measured at since Gallup began polling on the topic in the early 1970s.

When broken down along party lines, both Democrats and Republicans are almost equally distrustful of the legislative branch:

But when it comes to the executive branch, it’s a much different story:

From Gallup:

Americans’ trust in the three branches of the federal government is collectively lower than at any point in the last two decades. Although trust in the executive branch was lower during the Watergate era, the erosion of trust at that time was limited to that branch. Today, less than a majority trust the executive and legislative branches, and judicial trust, though still high on a relative basis, is the lowest Gallup has measured. The frustration with government is also evident in near-historical-low job approval ratings for Congress, below-average job approval ratings for Obama, and Americans’ consistently ranking the government itself as one of the most important problems facing the country.

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