Donald Trump has not been shy about his views of many government departments, as most of his cabinet picks make clear. Resetting vast bureaucracies isn’t easy, and many such efforts have been stymied in the past. But how do Americans view some of the agencies in the new administration’s crosshairs?
In September, Gallup released a poll on the job performance of 15 government departments and agencies. Gallup has been asking these questions for 20 years, and the data provide an invaluable perspective. In July, the Pew Research Center asked about favorable or unfavorable impressions of 16 groups. Both questions examined agencies and departments the public generally knows.
In 2003, 53% rated the FBI’s performance as excellent or good in Gallup’s poll. In 2024, that rating had dropped 12 points, to 41%. And the bureau’s poor rating has more than doubled, from 12% to 30% over 20 years. In Pew’s softer question, 51% had a favorable view of the agency, and a third an unfavorable one.
Gallup did not start tracking views on the Department of Justice until 2022 and views on its performance have not changed significantly in the last couple of years. In 2024, opinions were more negative (69% only fair or poor) than positive (29% excellent or good). In Pew’s 2024 poll, people split 43% favorable, 43% unfavorable. As Pew points out, partisanship plays a strong role in people’s impressions of many departments, with Republicans and those who lean to the right more critical than Democrats of most departments.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is another agency that will face scrutiny, and its slide in Gallup’s performance question has been more dramatic than the FBI’s. A year before the coronavirus outbreak in January 2020, 64% rated its performance as excellent or good. In 2024, 40% gave that response. Many pollsters tracked public opinion on the CDC and watched the Center’s initial high marks give way as criticism of school closures and mandatory vaccines soured views. Virtually every week during the pandemic, the invaluable Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Tracker asked Americans about COVID and the institutions dealing with it. In mid-March 2020, as Americans were becoming familiar with COVID, 84% said they placed a great deal or fair amount of trust in the CDC to provide accurate information. That inched up to 88%, the high water mark of CDC trust, in late March.
By December 2022, high trust had dropped to 63%. In the poll, 51% placed a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of trust in Anthony Fauci, but 47% had not much or none at all. Only 43% had high trust in Joe Biden. Positive ratings of the FDA’s performance are down slightly since Gallup first measured it in 2009, when 38% rated it as excellent or good. Today, that response is 34%.
In the latest Economist/YouGov survey conducted before his nomination to head Health and Human Services, 45% had a favorable opinion of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and 42% an unfavorable one. When asked how much influence he should have on the Trump administration, 19% said a lot, 27% a little, and 36% none at all.
Gallup has been tracking attitudes toward the Department of Defense for the past three years, but there has been little movement in the department’s ratings. In 2024, 50% rated its job performance excellent or good, while 47% viewed it as only fair or poor. Separately, the military remains one of the most highly regarded institutions in American life. In a new poll by Harris/Harvard Center for American Political Studies, 77% of registered voters rated the military favorably. It was the highest rated institution of 20 entities the pollster tested..
Trump praised the Secret Service for the way it handled the first assassination attempt, but the public’s perception is more negative. In Gallup’s poll, taken almost entirely before the second apparent assassination attempt, views of the Secret Service had plummeted, from 55% in 2023 to 32% in early September 2024.
For decades, Americans have told pollsters that the federal government is wasteful and inefficient. Fifty-six percent gave that response in a 2024 Pew poll. But almost as many, 53%, said government should do more to solve the country’s problems. Whether Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency can make a difference in the permanent structures of government remains to be seen. The public’s verdict on the performance of many departments and agencies, however, suggests it is worth a try.
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