The proportion of U.S. citizens who have confidence in their nation's military has declined, a new poll has revealed.
The U.S. military is involved in a number of missions as part of the Department of Defense's efforts to protect U.S. interests. Members of the army are stationed domestically and abroad in areas including the Middle East.
More than 16,000 troops will take part in the U.S.'s largest military exercise with the Philippines, it was reported in April, for instance.
But according to Gallup polling, confidence in the institution has declined in the last two decades.
The new polling, published earlier this month, found that 81 percent of Americans have confidence in the military. While that still indicates the vast majority of people have trust in the institution, this represents a decline from 2006 when 83 percent said they had confidence in the military.
It represents a 9 percent decline from 2010 when military confidence was at its peak in the last few two decades, with 90 percent saying they had confidence in the military.
American's confidence in the U.S. military is also below the confidence that citizens of other G7 countries have in their military. The polling showed that 86 percent of people in France have confidence in their military, for instance, while 83 percent of United Kingdom citizens hold the same views about theirs.
But more Americans have confidence in their military than people in Japan (80 percent), Italy, (79 percent), Canada (78 percent) and Germany (59 percent) have in theirs.
The poll also found that 29 percent thought the government was spending too little on military and national defense while 35 percent thought it was spending too much, compared to 33 percent who thought it was spending the right amount.
Newsweek contacted the Department of Defense outside of normal business hours by email to comment on this story.
Gallup sampled 1,000 people, aged 15 and older, living in each of the G7 countries, throughout 2023 for this survey. The margin of sampling error ranges from +/-3.6 percentage points to +/- 4.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
Another Gallup poll conducted last June similarly found that confidence in the U.S. military had hit the lowest it had in over two decades
Last year, a separate poll found that the majority of American adults would not be willing to serve in the military were the U.S. to enter into a major war.
The poll also found that Americans are losing trust in other institutions including the judicial system and the national government.
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Kate Plummer is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. politics and national affairs, and ... Read more
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