I write a post about this annual Gallup survey every year, but my observations apart from the obvious have been increasingly redundant. This will be reflected in my comments this year as well, largely because little has changed significantly since 2023. Gallup writes in its introduction,

Gallup began measuring public trust in various professions in 1976, initially covering 14 jobs. Over the years, the list has changed, with some occupations added and others removed. Since 1999, 11 professions have been tracked annually, while others have been included periodically.

The average very high/high ethics rating of the core 11 professions has decreased from routinely 40% or higher in the early 2000s to closer to 35% during most of the 2010s. It rose slightly in 2020, to a seven-year high of 38%, reflecting enhanced public trust in healthcare workers and teachers during the pandemic. Thereafter, the average declined each year through 2023, when it reached 30%, and it held there in 2024. This mirrors the long-term decline in Americans’ confidence in U.S. institutions.

There is mordant humor in that text: the enhanced public trust in healthcare workers and teachers was wildly misplaced. The healthcare profession was inept and dishonest during the pandemic, and the teachers unions crashed the economy by lobbying to keep the schools closed for their own interests. It also reflects the trend I’ve see in these surveys for years: the public tends to trust occupations they have to trust, explaining why pharmacists and nurses have always been among the most trusted professions.

One reason the trust freefall has slowed, I believe, is that so many professions are trusted so little now that there isn’t much farther for them to fall. Only 8% of those surveyed trust Congress strongly: I’d assume that just the number of apathetic ignoramuses in the population would account for that number. It will be interesting to see if this clown show…

…drives trust in Congress lower still in the 2025 survey. And who knows what horrors are to come?

It is interesting to me that lobbyists are so distrusted: what does the public expect them to do? They are paid to advocate the interests of their clients. I’d trust them to do that very well. I doubt that most of the Americans surveyed have a clear concept of what lobbyists are.

I also find it interesting that TV reporters are less trusted than “newspaper reporters.” This may reflect the fact that most of those surveyed only follow one newspaper if any, while they are familiar with several broadcast news outlets. They are certainly more visible in their dishonesty, incompetence and bias than their print equivalents, but there is no evidence that I can see that they are less trustworthy. (Well, except for MSNBC.) In addition, the survey took place after the election, and the outrageously slanted debate moderators during the 2024 campaign in addition to the shrill fearmongering about Donald Trump on the part of CNN and MSNBC was probably still nauseating respondents.

Relatively stalled that it was, the level of trust overall is still at a dangerous level.

Every year I write this, and it is still worth emphasizing: democracies depend on trust. Politicians and journalists who deliberately try to make the public distrustful by seeding hate, hysteria and suspicion…

…are, as our President might say, “enemies of the people.” The practice is literally chipping away at the foundations of the Republic, and the motive is a cynical desire to acquire more power over an asset being steadily diminished by the effort.

Observe which institutions have fallen the most since 2000:

The Catholic Church’s child molestation scandal, which exploded in 2001, is clearly the reason for the clergy’s trust collapse. But judges and police have seen their public trust erode because of concerted efforts to undermine them by the news media and elected officials.

Once again, I ask Gallup: Why isn’t the Presidency part of the survey?