(GoRealNewsNow.com) – In an unpleasant development for the United States military, its public confidence rating has declined to its lowest point since the late 1990s during the Clinton administration, a new poll finds.
Three-fifths – or 60% – of Americans presently express either “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of faith in the US military, according to the latest survey by Gallup.
The number is the lowest since 1997, during the Second Clinton Administration, when it last stood at 60%, The Washington Times notes in a report.
Gallup has asked Americans about their confidence in the nation’s armed forces since 1975.
The lowest public trust in the US military was registered in 1981, at 50%, and the highest was a decade later, in 1991, at 85%.
The last time Americans’ confidence in their armed forces was lower than the current 60% was in 1988 when it stood at 58%.
Gallup pointed out that, historically, public trust in the US military increased during the Reagan administration, reaching its peak during President George H.W. Bush’s administration after the First Gulf War.
However, most recently, it declined substantially after President Joe Biden’s humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, when 13 American service members were killed.
“Now that the US has completely withdrawn from both Iraq and Afghanistan, the two most significant military legacies of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the US, confidence in the military has continued to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,” the pollster added.
It noted that Republican voters’ confidence in the military plummeted from 91% under President Donald Trump to 68% today under Biden.
The share of Democrats who trust the nation’s armed forces declined by six percentage points since last year, reaching 62%.
“While Democrats’ confidence rating did rise after President Joe Biden assumed office, those gains have disappeared in the past year,” Gallup said.
Among independents, the decline is twice steeper – from 68% confidence last year to 55% today.
Gallup’s randomized national telephone survey polled 1,013 adults from June 1-22. It has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
