Only 28% of Americans Trust the MEDIA

The Home Team discusses America’s declining trust in news media and Donald Trump’s long-running criticism of major outlets. Gallup found that only 28% of U.S. adults expressed at least a fair amount of confidence in mass media in its latest annual measurement.
Gallup’s 2025 survey found 28% of Americans trusted mass media to report news “fully, accurately and fairly,” down from 31% in 2024 and 40% five years earlier. It was the lowest reading since Gallup began tracking the measure in 1972. The decline reflects a broader crisis of institutional confidence, but Americans do not view the media uniformly. Gallup’s results show substantial partisan differences in trust, making the national average an incomplete picture of how different audiences perceive journalism. Donald Trump has made “fake news” a central phrase in his criticism of mainstream journalism since his 2016 presidential campaign. His attacks on individual outlets, including CNN, have remained a prominent part of his political relationship with the press.