A far higher percentage of Americans think their government is corrupt than in just about any other country.

2 September 2026, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

The percent of Americans who believe that their Government is corrupt is now the 4th-highest ever recorded for any country: 89%. Only Lebanon in 2024 (92%), Peru in 2025 (92%), Ghana in 2024 (90%), and Nigeria in 2024 (90%), have ever been higher. Gallup polls this question (“Is corruption widespread throughout the government in this country, or not?”) each year in 132 countries; and (except for those four countries in those years), no other country has ever scored this high in perceived corruptness as viewed by the people who live there.

The 242-page Gallup research data for the newly published, 2025 year of polling, shows on its pages 229-242, for each of the 132 countries that was scientifically sampled and interviewed in 2025, the Data-collection date, Number of interviews, Margin of error, and Mode of interviewing. So, this is a massive global project.

Gallup’s headline about this poll published on September 2nd was “Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread: Substantial majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents agree”. It reported:

Americans’ perceptions of government corruption in the U.S. are at their highest level in 20 years, with 89% of U.S. adults saying it is widespread. That figure is up 10 percentage points from last year and well above readings in the 72% to 79% range between 2010 and 2025.

Democrats’ perceptions of government corruption have risen the most sharply since 2024 compared with other party groups. In former President Joe Biden’s final year in office, 57% of Democrats said corruption was widespread in government; that rose to 76% in 2025, the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, and reached 91% this year. The figure among political independents (90%) aligns more closely with Democrats’ than with Republicans’ (83%) and is up 12 points since 2024.

Republicans’ views of corruption have changed far less in the same period. For the past two years, about eight in 10 have said corruption is widespread, broadly in line with 2024, when 87% said the same.

Although strong majorities of Republicans and Democrats perceive government corruption as widespread, it is likely for different reasons. Democrats’ perceptions appear closely linked to which party controls the administration. Republicans’ greater consistency on this measure — despite the 2024 election delivering them the White House and Congress — suggests a more underlying view of government corruption that depends less on the party in power.

Before Recent Increase, U.S. Already Outranked Other Advanced Economies

The U.S. has increasingly diverged from other advanced economies in perceptions of government corruption, based on Gallup polling across the 38 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The median level of perceived corruption among OECD countries has fallen from 69% in 2009 to below 60% since 2022. …

Full data collection for 2026 is not yet complete in all countries, so the closest comparison across the OECD is from 2025, when a median of 59% said corruption is widespread in their government.

In the early years of this trend, countries such as Greece, Hungary and the Czech Republic all saw scores above 90%. But over time, the highest levels of perceived corruption across the bloc have gradually fallen, reaching 79% in 2025 — placing the U.S. atop the OECD rankings for the first time, even before the additional 10-point increase within the past year.

By 2024, there was already a 15-point gap between the U.S. and OECD countries on this metric, but that rose to 20 points in 2025 as U.S. perceptions of corruption increased six points to 79%, compared with 59% across the OECD. The gap between the U.S. and the OECD median could potentially be even wider this year. …

Yesterday, I headlined “Is Trump the most-corrupt President in U.S. history?”, and documented that he is. However, at least ever since the year 2000, America has had only very corrupt Presidents, and virtually the entire Congress is filled with only people who were effectively placed there by billionaires. Trump is merely more blatant than the others — and far more successful about it.

The ‘news’-media in America and in its colonies (‘allies’) portray their empire (“The West”) as being superior to the countries that they subvert, sanction, coup, invade, and otherwise aggress against and try to conquer, such as Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea; but now, it is clear that their arrogance stands actually behind one of the most corrupt countries in the world — more corrupt than the ones that they aggress against.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.