Democrats’ anger at federal government hits record high just days before shutdown: Pew poll

America’s emotional divide over the federal government has never been wider, according to a new Pew Research Center survey showing record-high anger among Democrats, rising Republican contentment, and near-collapse levels of public trust – all captured days before the government plunged into a 43-day shutdown.

The probability-based, nationally representative poll, conducted Sept. 22-28, 2025, finds nearly half of Americans (49%) say they feel frustrated with the federal government, 26% say angry and only 23% say they are basically content.

Pew reports that 44% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents now say they feel “angry” toward the federal government, or “highest share expressed by members of either party in surveys dating back to 1997.”

The number has jumped 10 points from 34% among Democrats during President Trump’s first term.

Just 8% of Democrats say they are content. 

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Republicans and GOP leaners show a dramatically different mood with 40% reporting contentment, half as frustrated and 9% angry. GOP anger, by comparison, peaked during the then-Obama and then-Biden administrations.

Pew says this emotional gap between the parties is now the largest ever measured.

Only about one-in-five Americans say they trust the federal government to do what’s right “just about always” or “most of the time,” a level Pew notes is “one of the lowest in the nearly seven decades since the question was first asked.”

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Democratic trust in the federal government sits in single digits in this wave. Republican trust, while still limited, is higher than it was a year ago before Trump was re-elected to hold the presidency.

Pew’s long-running trend shows frustration has been the nation’s default mood for nearly three decades, but this survey captures a rare structural shift: frustration dipping slightly, while both anger and contentment rise almost entirely along party lines.

That movement, Pew says, signals deepening emotional and political distance between Americans who are reacting to the same Trump administration in completely different ways.

Fox News Digital has requested comment from the White House on the survey’s findings.

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Pew researchers say they will continue tracking these attitudes into the 2026 midterms, noting that large swings in anger and trust have historically preceded shifts in political engagement and voter behavior.

For now, Pew’s new survey offers one conclusion that is hard to ignore: Americans aren’t just divided by politics, but by how they emotionally experience Trump 2.0.