Americans' trust in the federal agencies that have supported U.S. society is wavering. From the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is responsible for food and drug safety, to the judiciary, regarded as the last bastion, Americans poured distrust across the government system as a whole. Experts warned that distrust born of the politicization of agencies has reached a dangerous level that threatens the foundation of the United States.
According to a public opinion survey compiled through last month and released this month by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) on the 25th (local time), trust in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) fell 8 percentage points to 64% from 72% a year earlier. Trust in the FDA dropped 10 percentage points to 63% from 73%, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) plunged 12 percentage points to 62% from 74%. Specifically, responses saying they do not trust the CDC rose to 36% from 28% a year earlier. Responses saying they do not trust the FDA increased to 37% from 27%, and distrust of the NIH jumped to 38% from 26%.
The Annenberg Public Policy Center interpreted the results as showing a public perception that health care agencies can no longer maintain political neutrality and are becoming victims of "poliscience" (politics + science), swayed by the preferences of those in power. In particular, in this survey, only 39% said they trust public health information provided by Health and Human Services Minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known as a vaccine skeptic. Sixty percent said they do not trust Minister Kennedy Jr. By contrast, 57% said they trust Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), who was engulfed in criticism during the pandemic, 18 percentage points higher than Minister Kennedy. Minister Kennedy previously criticized the CDC as a "hotbed of corruption." Immediately after taking office, he dismissed all 17 CDC advisory committee members, stirring controversy.
Anxiety over food safety was even more serious. In a recent survey by the International Food Information Council (IFIC), the share of respondents who trust the safety of the U.S. food supply system hit an all-time low of 55%. Four in 10 respondents (43%) cited "too frequent recalls" as the reason for their distrust.
Americans believed that the food and beverages they purchase themselves (72% trust) are safer than the overall food system (55% trust). IFIC said this shows a psychological disconnect in which people do not trust the system itself but seek certainty of safety in individual consumer activity. In addition, 46% of respondents said the federal government should be responsible for food recall information. In reality, only 6% said they obtained recall information from the government. Most (63%) learned about it through the news media or social media.
The collapse of trust is spreading beyond the executive branch to the judiciary. In a survey released last December by the polling firm Gallup, only 35% said they trust the U.S. judicial system. That is a plunge of 24 percentage points from 59% in 2020, four years earlier.
The New York Times (NYT) noted that such a sharp drop in trust is a phenomenon seen in countries undergoing severe political upheaval, such as Myanmar (-46 percentage points), where a military coup occurred, Venezuela (-35 percentage points), which is experiencing extreme economic hardship, and Syria (-28 percentage points), engulfed in civil war.
Trust in the U.S. judiciary is lower than in Russia, Iraq, and Iran. Compared with the average of 38 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) at 55%, the gap widens further. A Pew Research Center survey also found negative views of the U.S. Supreme Court at 50%, the worst level in 30 years.
The core reason for judicial distrust is cited as the "politicization of the judiciary." University of Chicago Professor Tom Ginsburg told the NYT, "After the Supreme Court's ruling overturning abortion rights and multiple indictments of former President Donald Trump, the perception has spread that the judiciary has been irreversibly politicized."
Experts said that in the past, dissatisfaction on one side of the political spectrum was offset by support from the other side, but now trust is collapsing in both liberal and conservative camps regardless of political leaning. According to Gallup, trust in the judiciary among Republican supporters fell to 29% from 46%. Among Democratic supporters, trust also plunged to 44% from the 62% range.
This "system distrust" has left serious aftereffects on U.S. society. In public health crises, distrust of government announcements has crippled disease control systems, and as the authority of court rulings wavers, social turmoil has intensified. This year in the United States, as distrust of public health agencies has surged in tandem with Minister Kennedy Jr.'s vaccine skepticism, direct damage is emerging, including the worst measles outbreak in 25 years.
Professor Tom Ginsburg warned, "When public trust is low, the judiciary becomes vulnerable to frontal attacks." As the national system that should forge social consensus and mediate conflicts becomes the target of distrust, a growing sense of crisis holds that American democracy itself stands at a crossroads.