Perceptions of multiple Cabinet departments decline: Gallup

Fewer Americans rated the performance of some Cabinet departments as “excellent” or “good” compared with last year, according to a survey released Thursday.

The result is from Gallup’s annual governance poll , which asks Americans to rate the job performance of five federal Cabinet departments and 12 government agencies. The annual rating for four Cabinet departments was worse than what they were a year ago.

“Ratings of the State, Justice and Defense Departments are now the lowest Gallup has measured for each in readings dating back to 2021 or 2022,” the Gallup report said.

Dropping 8 percentage points, 40 percent of Americans favorably rated the performance of the Department of Defense. For the Department of State, the number dropped from 34 percent to 27 percent. About 27 percent of those polled rated the Justice Department’s performance favorably, compared with 31 percent in 2025.

Last year, 42 percent rated the Department of Homeland Security favorably, and the number has now come down to 36 percent, the poll showed.

“After illegal border crossings plummeted in late 2024 and 2025, the department’s job rating improved to 42% last year,” the Gallup report said. “Some recent immigration enforcement encounters have turned deadly, likely contributing to this year’s lower rating.”

The survey showed the Justice Department had the highest percentage of negative ratings, with about 48 percent saying “it is doing a poor job.” This is 21 percentage points higher than its positive rating.

Meanwhile, the Department of Veterans Affairs saw an improvement in ratings as compared with last year. The number rose from 25 percent last year to 31 percent this year.

The Gallup report said Republicans, including Republican-leaning independents, are responsible for more positive ratings than Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents toward the Cabinet departments.

“No more than 24% of Democrats rate any of the Cabinets positively, with a low of 11% for the Justice Department,” the report said.

The U.S. Postal Service and NASA, out of the 12 government agencies included in the survey, showed higher positive ratings while the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received the lowest good ratings.

The Gallup poll was conducted Sept. 1-17 and had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.