Americans' confidence in their democracy and military has fallen sharply since 2017, with new polling revealing deep partisan fractures over what it means to be American. The AP-NORC poll found that pride in the way democracy works dropped 14 percentage points over nine years, from 42% in February 2017 to just 28% now. Pride in the armed forces declined 19 percentage points during the same period.
The survey, conducted in April during a prolonged conflict involving U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and fighting over the Strait of Hormuz, captured sentiment at a particularly volatile moment. Gallup polling found that only 53% of U.S. adults are "extremely" or "very" proud to be an American, the lowest reading in the trend dating back 25 years to 2001.
The Partisan Divide
The collapse in national pride isn't uniform. Only 14% of Democrats and 28% of independents say they're "extremely" proud to be American, compared with 70% of Republicans. Republicans are especially likely to express pride in the nation's armed forces, with about 9 in 10 saying the military makes them "extremely" or "very" proud, compared with about 6 in 10 U.S. adults overall.
Samantha Fulks, a 40-year-old Republican in San Antonio, doesn't hide her pride. She displays an American flag in her front yard and Trump flags in the back, and plans to wear red, white and blue on the Fourth of July. Fulks comes from a military family. "I still support our troops no matter what they do," she said, even while questioning the country's involvement in Iran.
Much of the falling positivity comes from Democrats, who've become increasingly disenchanted since Trump's first term. Karla Galdamez, a 48-year-old Democrat and former U.S. history teacher, said America has regressed under the Trump administration. She's not proud of Trump, but she is pleased with how far the country has come in 250 years. "Despite some of the very ugly history that we have of segregation and slavery ... if you look at the trajectory of the last 250 years, we've done nothing but get better and move toward a more egalitarian nation," she said.
Identity and Demographics
Most U.S. adults still say being an American is "extremely" or "very" important to their identity, showing an enduring connection even as criticism of the country's past or government's current actions grows. But Republicans are much likelier than Democrats or independents to say being an American is highly important to their personal identity.
Younger people are also much less likely than older people to attach importance to American identity. About three-quarters of Americans ages 60 and older say being an American is highly important to them, compared with only about one-third of U.S. adults under 30.
The AP-NORC survey found that 73% of Black Americans say their race or ethnicity is "extremely" or "very" important to how they see themselves, higher than the share that say that about being an American. Vincent Harris, a 60-year-old in California, said his identity as a Black man rises above other attributes because of how Black men are treated in America. "A lot of people are scared of Black men just because we are Black and we are male," he said.
About half of Hispanic Americans say their race or ethnicity is highly important to them, compared with 22% of white Americans. Black and Hispanic adults are also more likely than white adults to say their family's ancestry or country of origin is highly important to their personal identity.
Competing Narratives
Matt Stafford, a 39-year-old Massachusetts centrist who identifies as "politically homeless," said he's proud of being an American even if the U.S. political system frustrates him. He has a bald eagle tattooed on his back to represent the United States, its freedoms and "all the things we're supposed to stand for as a country." Stafford said he wants Democrats and Republicans to come together to look out for their constituents in middle America. "I love America, but our biggest problem is how we're pushing both sides — like the left and the right — to the extremes," he said.
In a USA Today opinion collection tied to the approach of the nation's 250th anniversary, readers offered sharply different views. One reader blamed Trump for "defiling our world and country." Another wrote that the best thing about the United States is that with hard work and a dream, people can succeed at whatever they set their mind to do.
Alex Tran of Illinois wrote that the best thing about the United States is opportunities for everyone regardless of race, gender or age, and that the country played a critical role in saving the world from Nazism, communism and terrorism. He said he grew up under a communist regime in Asia and suffered there, and that living in America gives him personal freedom, good education and a decent job. He said the decline of patriotism is "the direct result of the rise of the progressive, woke and far-left movement, supported by corrupted politicians, living-in-the-bubble elites and dishonest corporate news."
Nolan Willis of Alaska wrote that the best thing about America is its foundational principles, rooted in English common law where liberty is supposed to be the default condition of citizens. He said the worst thing might be how America treated some Native American groups, including the Trail of Tears. He also said the United States has saved the world from tyranny at least twice within the past 100 years, including stopping Adolf Hitler, the Japanese imperial state and the Soviet Union, and more recently putting a stop to Iran's advancing capabilities to strike other nations with nuclear-armed ballistic missiles.
Willis said he separates love of country from love of government, quoting Mark Twain: "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." He said different factions want to weaponize the government to control people they don't like, which is fundamentally un-American, and that younger people have been indoctrinated into believing that even the best qualities of America don't redeem it because the only thing that matters is its sin.
Willis said the left focuses on America's treatment of Native Americans, the legacy of slavery and systemic environmental neglect as reasons why America was never great and never can be great. He said the religious right defines America by drug abuse, abortion, feminism, fornication, crime, pornography and materialism. "Both groups focus disproportionately on the negative and neglect the positive," he said. He said the left and the right need a truce, need to work together and permit accommodations for differences, and that if they cannot do that, the country won't survive. "We have been our own worst enemy, and we need to get a handle on that."
Patricia Bassi of Arizona wrote that the best thing the United States has done in its 250-year history is President Abraham Lincoln freeing enslaved people. She said patriotism is declining because of social media, artificial intelligence, a lack of motivation in younger generations and the decline of face-to-face social interaction.
Jimmy Waggoner of Colorado wrote that the first 240 years of the country's existence were outstanding for the most part, but that with the election of Trump in 2016, the government has shown itself to be racist, shortsighted and cruel. He said he is not proud to be an American, that there's no more patriotism in the country, and that he's retiring and taking his money out of the country.
The AP-NORC poll of 2,596 adults was conducted April 16-20 using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.
Why This Matters:
The sharp decline in national pride, particularly among younger Americans and Democrats, reflects a country struggling to maintain social cohesion amid political polarization. The 25-year low in American pride comes as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, a moment that should unite citizens around shared achievements. Instead, the data reveals competing narratives about American history and identity that threaten the common civic culture necessary for democratic governance. The partisan gap—with 70% of Republicans expressing extreme pride versus just 14% of Democrats—suggests that Americans increasingly view their country through ideological lenses rather than shared values. The generational divide is equally concerning for long-term stability: when only one-third of adults under 30 consider being American highly important to their identity, the transmission of civic values across generations becomes uncertain. The fact that most Americans still consider their national identity important offers some foundation for renewal, but bridging these divides will require leaders willing to emphasize shared principles over partisan advantage.