Confidence in federal civil servants remains far lower among Republicans than Democrats

Republicans and Democrats have long held very different views of federal “career employees” – the civil servants who work for government agencies or departments and do not change with administrations. That continues to be the case today: Most Democrats have high levels of confidence in the federal workforce, while most Republicans do not.

The Trump administration has made reducing the size of this workforce – through its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team in particular – one of its top priorities.

How we did this

Pew Research Center conducted this survey to assess Americans’ views of career civil servants, presidential appointees, and federal and state relations. We surveyed 5,086 U.S. adults from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2, 2025.

Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. Surveys were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other factors. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.

Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.

Overall, a slim majority of Americans (55%) express a great deal or fair amount of confidence in federal career employees, while 44% have little or no confidence, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Jan. 27-Feb. 2. But the already wide partisan divide in these views has continued to grow:

• Today, just 38% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents express a great deal or a fair amount of confidence in federal career employees. This is unchanged from 2022, but 10 percentage points lower than in 2018.
• In contrast, 72% of Democrats and Democratic leaners say they have confidence in career government employees – 7 points higher than in 2022, but on par with 2018 levels.

Conservative Republicans, in particular, have little confidence in the federal civil service: 30% now have at least a fair amount of confidence, while 70% have little to no confidence. By contrast, moderate and liberal Republicans are more divided: 51% have at least a fair amount of confidence in civil servants, while 48% don’t have much confidence in them.

Large majorities of both liberal Democrats (77%) and conservative and moderate Democrats (69%) have at least a fair amount of confidence in civil servants.

Related: What the data says about federal workers

Views of presidential appointees

In addition to career employees, presidents appoint officials to oversee government agencies. Partisan confidence in these officials generally tracks with the party holding the White House.

Today, 71% of Republicans say they have at least a fair amount of confidence in presidential appointees. In 2018, during the first Trump administration, 60% of Republicans expressed confidence in presidential appointees. But in 2022 – when Democrat Joe Biden was president – just 21% of Republicans said they had confidence in presidential appointees.

Among Democrats, 22% currently say they have a great deal or a fair amount of confidence in presidential appointees. This is slightly lower than the 28% who expressed confidence in 2018 during the first Trump administration. In 2022, when Biden was president, 54% of Democrats said they had confidence in presidential appointees. 

Views of federal and state government relations

Americans’ views about the relationship between the state and federal governments have also shifted somewhat with the change in administration. 

Concerns about states’ willingness to work with the federal government

Today, 40% of Republicans and 34% of Democrats say they are extremely or very concerned about states not being willing enough to work with the federal government. These views have shifted since the Biden administration, with Republicans and Democrats moving in opposite directions. In 2023, 27% of Republicans and 54% of Democrats expressed these concerns.

Concerns about the federal government setting policies better left to states

Republicans and Democrats have also moved in opposite directions when it comes to concern about the federal government setting policies on issues that may be better left to state governments. Today, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they are extremely or very concerned about this (46% vs. 30%).

In 2023, we asked a similar question: “How concerned are you that the federal government is doing too much on issues better left to state governments?” At that time, Republicans were far more likely than Democrats to express concern (62% vs. 22%).

Concerns that rights and protections may differ across states

Democrats continue to be more concerned than Republicans that the rights and protections a person has might differ by state. Today, 66% of Democrats say they are extremely or very concerned about this, compared with 27% of Republicans.

Democrats’ level of concern is relatively unchanged from 2023. In contrast, Republicans’ level of concern has decreased by 12 points.

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.