Faith in the military hits lowest mark in Gallup poll since Clinton presidency

Confidence in the U.S. military has fallen to its lowest level in Gallup polling in 26 years, the company said Monday.

The polling firm found 60% of adults responding to the latest survey expressed “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of faith in the nation’s national defense apparatus. That’s the bleakest reading since 60% said the same in 1997, during President Bill Clinton’s second term in office.

Since Gallup started polling the question in 1975, confidence in the military registered a record low of 50% in 1981 and a record high of 85% in 1991. The last time confidence was lower was 1988, when it hit 58%.

The company noted that confidence in the military generally improved during the Reagan administration, reached a high water mark under President George H.W. Bush following the American victory in the first Gulf War, then dropped further under President Biden after the exit from Afghanistan in 2021 that resulted in 13 killed American service members.

“Now that the U.S. has completely withdrawn from both Iraq and Afghanistan, the two most significant military legacies of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., confidence in the military has continued to decline among the public,” Gallup said. “The declines this year were across all party identification groups, with Republicans remaining the most likely to express confidence and independents becoming the least likely.”

Throughout the 48-year polling trend, Republican respondents have been likeliest to express faith in the military. But the company noted their confidence has plunged from 91% of respondents at the end of the Trump administration in 2020 to 68% this year under Mr. Biden, a Democrat.

Confidence in the military has dropped from 68% to 55% of independents surveyed over the same period. Among Democrats, confidence fell from 68% last year to 62% this year, roughly the same as the 61% of Democrats who said they trusted the military at the end of Trump’s term.

The last time Democrats responding to Gallup surveys had more faith in the military than independents was in 2013, during the Obama administration.

“While Democrats’ confidence rating did rise after President Joe Biden assumed office, those gains have disappeared in the past year,” the company said.

Gallup conducted a randomized national telephone survey of 1,013 adults from June 1-22. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.