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Americans think both Congress and the government suck

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by Merrill Matthews, opinion contributor - 04/28/26 10:30 AM ET

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by Merrill Matthews, opinion contributor - 04/28/26 10:30 AM ET

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., flanked by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., left, and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., speaks to reporters following a closed-door party meeting, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Here’s an anomaly for you: Although Americans regularly express pride in our country, they increasingly disapprove of our government, including the presidency and especially Congress. And who can blame them? Washington is doing a terrible job.

Let’s start with Congress: The share of Democrats who approve of how Congress is handling its job is just 3 percent.

The number is only a little better when everyone is included. According to a new Gallup poll, Americans’ approval of the 119th Congress has fallen to 10 percent, with 86 percent disapproving. That’s the second lowest approval rating on record. The lowest was 9 percent in November 2013, while President Barack Obama was in office.

Breaking that down along party lines: 20 percent of Republicans approve of how this Congress is doing its job. That’s down from a high of 63 percent in March 2025 — the month before President Trump announced his reciprocal tariffs scheme. Republican approval has been on a mostly downward trend ever since.

Only 11 percent of Independents approve of Congress.

For comparison, during Trump’s first term in office, Republican approval of Congress ranged from 20 percent his first year to a high of 40 percent his last year. Democratic approval was only a little lower: between a low of 31 percent and a high of 38 percent — more than 10 times higher than Democrats’ current approval.

One reason for the approval decline is that Congress has become extremely polarized. Also, the party in power in Congress seems unwilling to challenge its president, regardless of what he does, undermining the important check-and-balance feature of our government.

But it’s not just congressional approval in the tank. The public simply no longer trusts the government. A new Pew Research Center poll says, only 17 percent say “they trust the government in Washington to do what is right ‘just about always’ (2 percent) or ‘most of the time’ (15 percent).’” That’s down from a high of 77 percent in October 1964 — a 60-point drop.

There were a few temporary improvements in that decades-long decline. During the Reagan presidency, public trust defied the downward trend, moving back up into the high 30s.

And public trust climbed after Republicans took control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 1994 midterm election, rising from about 20 percent in late 1994 to 54 percent in October 2001 — the month following 9/11. The generally accepted reason for the increase is that Congress pushed back against an initially overreaching President Bill Clinton, forcing him to back more moderate policies.

But public trust in government has hovered around 20 percent since Obama entered the White House in 2009. Why?

One reason is the government is trying to do too much of what it isn’t good at doing. Take the Affordable Care Act, or ObamaCare. Democrats tried to remake the U.S. health care system. Obama promised ObamaCare would create a competitive health care marketplace, with high-quality insurance, lower premiums and virtually eliminate the uninsured. And remember: “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.” None of that was true. And now Democratic candidates want to reform the health care system without ever acknowledging the “broken system” they want to fix is the one they gave us.

Another reason for the loss of trust: Obama’s “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone” decision to try and impose his agenda without bipartisan support. That cracked open the door to go-it-alone policies that Presidents Joe Biden and Trump (especially in his second term) have since thrown wide open.

The public also lost some trust in Washington’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the decision by Biden and the Democrats to pass several big-spending bills that ignited inflation.

And then there’s Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, retribution prosecutions, statements that are clearly false (such as other countries pay his tariffs), Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s overzealous efforts in Minnesota, and now a damaging and costly war — all with virtually no pushback from Congress.

Can the public’s approval of Congress and the public trust in gov