Republican Trust Lifts US Media Confidence to 33%, Gallup Finds
Trust in the mass media among Americans climbed to 33 percent this year, up five percentage points from an all-time low recorded in 2025, according to Gallup survey results released Tuesday.
The poll found that a third of respondents said they had a "great deal" or "fair amount" of confidence in newspapers, television and radio to report the news "fully, accurately and fairly." That figure compares with 28 percent in 2025, the weakest reading in the survey's more than 25-year history.
Republican respondents accounted for the overall improvement. Their trust in the media rose to 22 percent, an eight-point gain from the previous year. It is the first time since 2018 that Republican confidence has exceeded 20 percent, and the 22 percent mark represents the highest level in a decade.
Democrats moved in the opposite direction, with their trust falling to a historic low of 50 percent. Among independents, 31 percent expressed confidence in the media, a modest rise from 28 percent in 2025.
When asked about their level of confidence, 33 percent of all respondents said they had "not very much," while another 33 percent said they had "none at all."
Lydia Saad, Gallup's director of U.S. social research, noted the sharp partisan split in media trust but stressed that overall ratings remain historically weak. "The partisan trends also reveal a somewhat different political environment toward the media in Trump's second term than in his first," Saad wrote in her analysis of the findings.
The survey period overlapped with a fresh clash between the White House and several news organizations. On Sept. 18, President Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. In a social media post announcing the ban, Trump labeled CNN "fake news" and criticized MS NOW for changing its name from MSNBC, claiming the outlet had to rebrand because of "lack of viewership and credibility." He also objected to the $8 million that government agencies pay for Politico Pro subscriptions, calling it "illegal and ridiculous."
A federal judge swiftly reversed the ban on Sept. 24, ordering the White House to restore press credentials for the three outlets. The dispute continued after the ruling, however, as the Trump administration blocked CNN from traveling with the press pool on Air Force One over the weekend.
Gallup conducted the survey with 1,000 U.S. adults between Sept. 1 and 17. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.
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