How Trust in America’s Institutions Is Shifting in 2025

New presidencies tend to polarize the American public while, on the whole, eliciting a sense of optimism for at least a brief period of time. 2025 is no different in that regard, with average trust in a range of U.S. institutions coming in at a four-year high.

That’s not to say that all institutions are faring better from a reputational perspective. In fact, Morning Consult trend data shows several are on the downswing since late 2023, including corporate America, Big Tech and — under President Donald Trump’s leadership, the federal government itself —with politics playing a big role in people’s confidence given President Donald Trump’s efforts to shift all parts of American life.  

Let’s start with the good news. Our Sept. 6-8 survey found that small businesses remain America’s most trusted institution among two dozen tested, with 84% of U.S. adults expressing “some” or “a lot” of trust — up 6 percentage points since 2023 — with no partisan divide.

America’s growing faith in small business contrasts with a decline in trust of corporate America (from 45% to 42%) following a modest upswing since late 2020.

Corporate America, and specifically its Silicon Valley conglomerates, have made a big show of cozying up to Trump since his victory, with the tech barons' pilgrimage to Washington for Trump’s inauguration and other business leaders’ work to kiss the ring, not to mention billionaire Elon Musk’s fervent support of Trump’s 2024 campaign.  

This appears to have been noticed by both sides of the aisle.

Just 43% of Democrats have confidence in Silicon Valley — down from 51% in 2023. On the other side of the aisle, the U.S. tech hub is now trusted by 39% of Republicans, up 12 percentage points since 2021, when major social media companies removed him from their platforms following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

This same trend also holds for corporate America as a whole. Just 2 in 5 Democrats said they trust America’s major boardrooms, down from 49% in 2023, while trust among Republicans has grown 16 points to 55% as major brands have resisted the urge to publicly fight Trump following the fallout from Jan. 6. That all adds up to a partisan trust gap in corporate America that exceeds any other we’ve gauged so far.

Still, Americans are able to separate their views of the boardrooms with their views about American industry.

In recent years, adults across the U.S. have become more trusting of American companies while their confidence in international companies has stalled. As Trump’s given praise to American business, all the while sticking it to them and foreign ones with his trade policies, Republicans have grown a bit more fond of domestic producers.

At the same time, the wealthiest consumers have grown less confident in foreign businesses as the country has grown more trusting of American ones.

Just half of those living in households making more than $100,000 said they trust international corporations, down from 56% in 2023. Over that same time period, these Americans’ confidence in domestic companies increased slightly, from 77% to 78%, alongside similar increases among those making less money.  

Government institutions

On top of the business turmoil, Trump’s ongoing attacks on the Federal Reserve have sent tremors through the elite circles of Washington and Wall Street given concerns about how the erosion of the central bank’s independence could impact markets.

However, these developments appear to be going almost entirely over the heads of everyday Americans — especially Republicans — with confidence in the Fed on the upswing.

A majority (54%) of U.S. adults trust the Federal Reserve, up slightly from 51% back in late 2023. The public’s confidence in the Federal Reserve is underwritten by the trust of 61% of Democrats (in line with our 2023 reading) and 52% of Republicans (up 8 percentage points over the past couple of years).

The opposite is true for the rest of Washington’s institutions. In a reversal from 2023, Republican trust now accounts for the bulk of the public’s confidence in the Supreme Court, Congress and the federal government. This isn't surprising given the Republican trifecta’s grip on power in Washington. But ahead of next year’s midterm elections, perhaps more concerning for the GOP is that trust in the federal government among independents is down from 39% to 33% since 2023.   

Meanwhile, Democrats would do well to focus on what’s happening at the local level.

Since 2023, Democratic trust in local governments has fallen from 64% to 53%, while Republican trust has grown from 51% to 58%, even as confidence in state-level governments went mostly unchanged among partisans.

This shift in perceptions of local authorities may be explained, at least in part, by a decline in trust among those who say they live in urban communities amid the nationwide chatter about crime driven by Trump’s reach into cities.  

Scientific institutions

Trump has also laid siege to science and educational institutions by, among other moves, elevating vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, drastically downsizing the Department of Education and cutting billions in research and grant funding.

Those efforts, especially as it relates to Kennedy’s leadership and the Trump administration’s firing of the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have broken through more with everyday Americans than his efforts with the Fed. But what’s happened has done nothing to diminish Democrats’ faith in the scientific community and public educational system, and actually increased confidence among Republicans.    

More than 2 in 3 Republicans (65%) said they trust the scientific community, up from 54% during Joe Biden’s presidency to roughly match where it was in late 2020. At the same time, 82% of Democrats said they trust America’s researchers, marking a 4-point improvement since 2023.

When it comes to the public educational system, Republicans’ confidence hasn’t returned to its level at the end of Trump’s first term, but is elevated compared with the past few years. And among Democrats, trust in America’s public schools hasn’t really been hurt by Trump’s latest ascent, with 2 in 3 expressing confidence.

Similarly to science and schools, Trump’s second term also hasn’t shaken the larger electorate’s trust in the health care system, though it has shifted sentiment along partisan lines.

For the first time since the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in 2021, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say they trust the health care system (66% to 62%). Democrats' trust is down from 71% at the end of Biden’s first year in office, while Republicans’ is up from 58%.

The bottom line

Despite the high-profile attacks on a range of key institutions, Americans’ concerns often appear driven by partisanship more than anything else — a divide that, as we’ve seen repeatedly throughout the years, often dictates the kind of information voters are consuming, especially on the right. 

Some sectors, such as the media, the police, Americans’ employers and religious leaders, have appeared more resistant to the partisan whims based on who is in power at the national level. That may be good news for researchers, public health activists and the industries they rely on given how Trump’s efforts to dismantle research efforts and educational institutions hasn’t harmed trust on the left, leaving a solid base of support for them moving forward.

Time will tell what holds.

For example, while Republicans have actually grown more confident in the Fed since the president took office, Trump’s public pressure campaign for lower interest rates and attempted firing of Fed governor Lisa Cook, a Biden appointee, may be coming to a head with the Supreme Court set to weigh in on her removal. 

And for the business community, it’s worth noting that trust in Silicon Valley and the country’s business enterprises remains underwater among the larger public. But if there’s real political hay to be made, it’s Silicon Valley — a key driver of America’s economy today that’s faced blame for the political environment America finds itself in today — that serves as an easy political punching bag for politicians on both sides of the aisle.