2018 Was the Year Cities Trusted Amazon

In October, a group of Americans were asked to rank which U.S. institution they trusted the most. Researchers from Georgetown and NYU were curious to see if there was anything left in 2018 that an increasingly polarized public still considered honorable. It wasn’t religion, Congress, or the press. The military scored highly, topping the Republican pool’s list. But across party lines, one brand secured the broadest allegiance, at least for the 5,400 respondents that took the survey: Amazon.com.

Amazon’s high grade—ranked first for Democrats, and third for Republicans—might come as a surprise. On the right, the company has been a frequent target of President Donald Trump’s ire. And on the left, it’s been condemned for a host of corporate offenses, such as providing ICE with facial recognition technology, treating workers like robots, and union-busting. This year, as Amazon’s valuation hit $1 trillion and founder Jeff Bezos officially became the world’s richest man, it helped disappear a business tax in Seattle designed to help homeless people and allegedly lobbied hard against toughening Washington state’s pay equity law. And yes, this was the year Amazon’s North America-wide search for a second headquarters came to an unceremonious close, triggering a national debate about the corporate tax incentives it was allowed to solicit.