Young Americans ‘continue to lose faith in government institutions'
The spring 2025 Harvard Youth Poll reflects a deepening lack of trust in government institutions from a generation that came of age during the Covid-19 pandemic and now faces heightened economic uncertainty.
Only 19 percent of respondents expressed trust in the federal government 'to do the right thing most or all the time,' according to the poll. Congress won the lowest vote of confidence from the young respondents, of whom only 18 percent said they trusted the legislative body. The office of the president wasn't far behind, clinching only 23 percent trust. Twenty-nine percent said they trusted the Supreme Court.
"Amid financial hardship and a devastating crisis of community, young Americans are increasingly disillusioned with the world as they struggle to find their place in it," Jordan Schwartz, the student chair of the Harvard Public Opinion Project, said in a press release. "This generation doesn't expect politics to solve their problems, but as young Americans continue to lose faith in government institutions, the need for politicians to listen to and learn from young people has never been greater."
Democrats, in particular, are facing a significant reckoning from young Americans. Support for the party is declining sharply, with approval of congressional Democrats plummeting from 42 percent in spring 2017 to only 23 percent in the March poll. By contrast, approval of congressional Republicans held fairly steady, at 29 percent this year from 28 percent at the beginning of the first Trump administration.
But young Americans aren't big fans of the Republican Party either. President Donald Trump's job approval remained underwater at 31 percent, essentially unchanged since his 32 percent approval in spring 2017 and 29 percent in fall 2020 — which tracks well below his approval rating in most polls of the general electorate.
Trump's tariff policy was also widely unpopular among young voters, with only 19 percent of respondents saying they supported new tariffs on foreign goods, while 50 percent said they opposed the duties.
According to the poll, support for the policy also fell along sharply divided partisan lines. While 46 percent of young Republicans said they backed tariffs, only 5 percent of Democrats reported the same support. Young Democrats overwhelmingly opposed the policy, with 82 percent saying they were against tariff implementation.
But Trump is also making inroads in a community where he has long struggled to gain traction. The president's approval among young Black Americans more than doubled from only 6 percent in 2017 to 16 percent in the recent poll. By contrast, his approval with young white Americans declined from 44 percent to 39 percent.
The Harvard Youth Poll surveyed 2,096 Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 years old from March 14-25, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.21 percentage points.
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