Yet more polls reveal young adults have a significant lack of trust in such American institutions as the government and the media. The surveys may be new, but the trend is not. As we move into a new year, we discover that Millennials and Gen Z, who have long reported skepticism and disdain for the powers that be, continue to believe that the major institutions of American society simply don’t have their best interests in mind. Well, are they wrong?
Survey Says...
Harvard’s Institute of Politics conducted a poll Nov. 3-7, questioning 2,040 adults under the age of 30. Respondents sent a clear message. “The systems and institutions meant to support them no longer feel stable, fair, or responsive to this generation,” John Della Volpe, the director of polling, said in a statement. “Their trust in democracy, the economy, and even each other is fraying – not because they are disengaged, but because they feel unheard and unprotected in a moment of profound uncertainty.”
In this poll, President Donald Trump’s approval rating sits at an average of 29%, with both Democrats and Republicans showing similarly low levels of satisfaction. Asked about their preference for the outcome of the 2026 elections, registered voters favored a Democrat-controlled Congress over a Republican one 46% to 29%, with about a quarter saying they’re unsure. And in an open-ended question about what concerns them most, 29% said the economy, 18% chose something related to government, democracy, or politics in general, and 10% went with immigration specifically.
This is far from the first survey to show such unsurprising results. The Pew Research Center released a report on Dec. 4 showing that just 17% of Americans say they trust the government in Washington to do what is right “just about always” (2%) or “most of the time” (15%). General trust in the government has been low for decades, but this represents one of the lowest rates since this question was first asked in the National Election Study almost 70 years ago. And that includes adults in all age groups.
Back in 2023, Gallup found a similar trend among young folks. “Members of Generation Z in the U.S. – those between the ages of 12 and 26 – generally lack trust in political and societal institutions according to a new study from Gallup and Walton Family Foundation,” the research group reported.
Conducted April 24-May 8, 2023, the study asked 3,114 people aged 12-26 to rank their trust in almost a dozen institutions as either “a great deal,” “quite a lot,” “some,” or “very little.” Science ranked the highest, with 36% saying they trust it a great deal and another 35% saying they trust it quite a lot. Another 22% said “some,” and 6% chose “very little.” That’s 71% who mostly trust science – and things get considerably worse from there.
Just 40% trusted the military a great deal (14%) or quite a lot (26%). For the medical system, 13% said a great deal and 32% said quite a lot. The police saw similar numbers, at 13% and 25%, respectively. The criminal justice system, the Supreme Court, “information you find on the internet,” large tech companies, the presidency, the news media, and Congress all hit single digits for a great deal of trust and fell below 20% for quite a lot of trust.
Trust – Hard Earned and Easily Broken
There’s an old saying, often attributed to John Adams: “If a person is not a liberal when he is twenty, he has no heart; if he is not a conservative when he is forty, he has no head.” There are a variety of similar expressions attributed to various other people. The actual words Adams uttered, according to Thomas Jefferson writing in a 1799 journal entry, were: “A boy of 15 who is not a democrat is good for nothing, and he is no better who is a democrat at 20.”
However you want to word it, the sentiment certainly seems to apply today: It’s a heartless man who, in his youth, doesn’t see the suffering of others and want to fix it. But it’s a foolish man who, after gaining some years, still lacks the wisdom to understand that socialism only makes it worse. And the younger the person, the rarer that understanding seems to be. It should come as no surprise, then, that America’s youth see the Trump administration and a Republican Congress as unfair and heartless. Most of them just aren’t old enough to know better yet – or to see through the posturing and virtue signaling of those who certainly are old enough to know better.
That, perhaps, explains the trend of young folks disapproving of Trump and hoping for a Democrat-controlled Congress. Those who disagree, though, will be relieved to know that only about half of the respondents to the Harvard poll said they plan to vote, and just 28% said they’re politically engaged at all.
As well, it’s no wonder that Americans in general – young and old – are losing trust in the press and the internet. The internet has always been the Wild West of information delivery – anyone can post anything, and these recent generations grew up immersed in that knowledge. As for the media, the war with Trump spilling out across the web and print newspapers over the last decade has put whatever remaining credibility the press may have had to the torch.
Finally, America’s youth say they don’t trust the government at all, including Congress, the military, and the president – but that isn’t all on Trump and the GOP. Recall Gallup’s poll from 2023. That was right in the middle of Joe Biden’s presidency. It seems, then, that the younger generations just don’t trust the government no matter who’s in charge. Well, they’re hardly alone there. Ronald Reagan, born in 1911, belonged to the Greatest Generation, many of whom survived World War I as children, came of age during the Great Depression, and fought in World War II. It was Reagan who said: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.’”
Perhaps, then, Millennials and the older members of Generation Z have merely rediscovered an older wisdom of years past. Gallup’s study revealed that the younger Gen Z folks, aged 12-18, were generally more trusting. But don’t worry, they’re young yet; they have plenty of time to learn.
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