Nearly 90 Percent Of Americans Think Government Is Corrupt

Most Americans believe there is widespread corruption in the U.S. government, according to a new poll.

Gallup found that 89 percent of American adults believe that corruption is widespread, the highest figure the polling company has documented in 20 years. The figure is also up 10 points from last year and outpaces the views of other countries by a fairly wide margin.

Perceptions among Democrats and independent voters drove the shift, and those views have worsened since President Trump began his second term in office.

"In former President Joe Biden's final year in office, 57% of Democrats said corruption was widespread in government; that rose to 76% in 2025, the first year of President Donald Trump's second term, and reached 91% this year. The figure among political independents (90%) aligns more closely with Democrats' than with Republicans' (83%) and is up 12 points since 2024," Gallup stated.

By comparison, Republicans' view of corruption has changed little. Gallup noted that in in 2024, 87 percent of Republicans thought corruption was widespread compared to 83 percent now.

The pollster observed that while the perceptions of Democrats about corruption shifted substantially based on who was in the White House, Republicans' views did not. The finding suggests that Republicans might have a more cynical view about government overall, regardless of which party is in power.

Gallup also found that the U.S. is far more cynical about its government than other comparable countries. Gallup polled 38 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and found that in most other countries people believed their governments were becoming less corrupt.

"The median level of perceived corruption among OECD countries has fallen from 69% in 2009 to below 60% since 2022," Gallup stated.

The U.S. is now atop the OECD country rating, above countries such as Greece, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Those countries were once polled at 90 percent or higher, but now have fallen below 80 percent.

"Perceptions of government corruption are now higher in the U.S. than at any point in the past two decades and outpace most other countries, including advanced economies," Gallup stated.

"In a country where many are polarized across a wide range of issues, this is one case where bipartisanship reflects shared alarm as much as shared consensus. In fact, it is the near convergence of U.S. partisans on the issue — with Democrats' concern about government corruption now only marginally higher than Republicans' — that has lifted the U.S. figure to its record high," the report states.