The Big Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –
A record high percentage the people of the United States, 89 percent, now say government corruption is widespread, a number that is up 10 percentage points from 2025 and well above readings in the 72 to 79 percent range researchers found in surveys between 2010 and 2025.
Democrats’ perceptions of government corruption have risen the most sharply since Donald Trump’s election as president in 2024, although the sentiment is shared by political independents and Republicans, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject.
In former President Joe Biden’s final year in office, 57 percent of Democrats said corruption was widespread in government. In 2025, 76 said after the first year of Trump’s second term. Now 91 percent of Democrats say this administration is the most corrupt in America’s history.
Political independents agree, with 90 percent say government corruption is widespread, and even 83 percent of Republicans agree, up 12 points since 2024.
Although strong majorities of Republicans and Democrats perceive government corruption as widespread, it is for different reasons. Democrats’ perceptions appear closely linked to which party controls the administration, and is no doubt a result of all the news reporting showing Trump using his political office for personal gain.
Republicans tend to see government corruption more consistently over time, although their party now holds power in the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court.
The U.S. has increasingly diverged from other advanced economies in perceptions of government corruption, based on Gallup polling across the 38 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The median level of perceived corruption among OECD countries has fallen from 69 percent in 2009 to below 60 percent since 2022.
In the early years of this trend, countries such as Greece, Hungary and the Czech Republic all saw scores above 90 percent. But over time, the highest levels of perceived corruption across the bloc have gradually fallen to 79 percent in 2025.
By 2024, there was already a 15-point gap between the U.S. and other countries on this metric, but that rose to 20 points in 2025 as U.S. perceptions of corruption increased six points to 79 percent as Trump came to power and began using his office for personal gain.
Since 2023, only four countries out of the 132 in which Gallup has posed this question annually have scored nominally above the 89% recorded in the U.S. this year: Lebanon in 2024 (92%), Peru in 2025 (92%), and Ghana and Nigeria in 2024 (both 90%).
Gallup asks the people of the world about corruption each year in two contexts: government and business. The two are typically strongly related. If people think corruption is widespread in their national government, it is likely that they think the same about businesses in their country.
But the U.S. increasingly bucks this trend.
Americans’ perceptions of business corruption have also increased this year, by eight points to 71 percent, perhaps because they see business leaders like the Big Tech giants in league with Trump. But that is still 18 points lower than perceptions of corruption in government.
Between 2006 and 2025, however, perceptions of government corruption averaged 11 points higher than business corruption. Across Gallup’s trend since 2006, few countries have recorded larger gaps than the current U.S. gap in relative perceptions of government versus business corruption.
Gallup’s Bottom Line
“Perceptions of government corruption are now higher in the U.S. than at any point in the past two decades and outpace most other countries, including advanced economies. While perceptions of corruption in business are also elevated, government corruption is seen as significantly more widespread,” analysts say. “In a country where many are polarized across a wide range of issues, this is one case where bipartisanship reflects shared alarm as much as shared consensus. In fact, it is the near convergence of U.S. partisans on the issue — with Democrats’ concern about government corruption now only marginally higher than Republicans’.”
___
If you support truth in reporting with no paywall, and fearless writing with no popup ads or sponsored content, consider making a contribution today with GoFundMe or Patreon or PayPal.
