Public confidence in military lowest since 1997: Gallup

Americans’ confidence in the military is the lowest since 1997, according to a Gallup poll released Monday. 

The survey found 60 percent of Americans have confidence in the military, matching the lowest level since 1997. Confidence has not been lower since 1988, when it sunk to 58 percent.

The poll found declines in military confidence across political parties. While Republicans remain the most likely to express confidence in the military, the rate has decreased by more than 20 percentage points over the past three years, from 91 percent to 68 percent, the poll found. Independents are the least likely to have confidence in the U.S. military, with a decline of 13 percentage points from 68 percent to 55 percent, according to the survey. Democrats’ confidence came in at 62 percent, a more modest dip from last year’s 68 percent. 

Gallup said confidence ranged between 50 percent and 58 percent from the late 1970s to the early 1980s during the Cold War, then increased during former President Reagan’s term in the 1980s and hit a record high after the Gulf War victory in 1991. Confidence has generally remained higher than 70 percent in the past two decades since 9/11, according to Gallup.

The firm noted that confidence has continued to decrease since the U.S. withdrawal from both Iraq and Afghanistan.

The same poll found public confidence in major societal institutions also continues to slump, with the presidency and U.S. Supreme Court seeing the biggest declines last year. This year, public confidence in the presidency and Supreme Court sat at 27 percent and 26 percent, respectively. The survey was conducted before the Supreme Court handed down landmark decisions on affirmative action, college loan forgiveness and LGBTQ access to certain services. 

Gallup said confidence in 14 other major institutions remained close to last year’s low numbers, with no scores significantly changing. Small business has the most trust at 65 percent, while Congress has the least with 8 percent. 

The poll was conducted through telephone interviews from June 1-22 with a random sample of 1,013 adults living in all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. The margin of sampling error is about 4 percentage points.