In this paper I argue that generalized trust plays a central but hitherto misunderstood role in explaining political support. The paper tests two hypotheses: First, we should expect the effects on political support of information about, experience with, and evaluation of the performance of the political system to be greater among low trusters compared to high trusters. Second, we should expect the effect of generalized trust on political support to be dependent on information about, experience with, and evaluation of the performance of the political system. The empirical analyses confirm the hypotheses. The estimated effects on political support of factors such as evaluations of government performance, affinity with the incumbent government, and media consumption are significantly greater among low trusting compared to high trusting individuals, whereas the impact of generalized trust is significantly conditioned by the individual’s information about and evaluation of the performance of the political system.