Record-low trust in government's handling of global problems: Poll

When President Obama delivers a primetime address on Wednesday night about the U.S. plan to combat Islamist militants in Iraq and Syria, he'll be speaking to an American public that has never been less confident in America's ability to handle global crises, according to a new poll from Gallup.

Only 43 percent of respondents in the survey released Wednesday say they trust the government to handle international problems.

That number is as low as it's ever been, but it's still higher than the 40 percent of respondents who say they trust the government "a great deal" or a "fair amount" to handle domestic problems.

The numbers come amid a cascade of international issues facing the administration. Jihadists with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have claimed broad swaths of those two countries and recently executed two American journalists. Ukraine and Russia are enmeshed in negotiations about pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine. Several nations in North Africa and East Africa have been plagued by instability, and an Ebola outbreak continues to fester in West Africa.

Last year, the same poll was taken as the U.S. was mulling plans to strike the Syrian regime for using chemical weapons. At the time, 49 percent of respondents said they had confidence in America's ability to solve global problems. And in 2012, a full 66 percent of respondents voiced confidence in America's handling of international crises.

According to the survey released Wednesday, Democrats continue to have far greater confidence in the government's abilities both at home and abroad than Republicans. Seventy percent of Democrats say they trust the government to handle international problems, and 63 percent say they trust the government to handle domestic problems. Among Republicans, those numbers are 27 and 28 percent, respectively.

Gallup's poll surveyed 1,017 adults across the United States from Sept. 4-7. Results compiled from the full sample carry a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.