This paper examines the dynamics of political trust in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic. Political trust is crucial for maintaining societal cohesion during crises, as it influences how citizens react to their government’s actions in uncertain times. This research extends the understanding of political trust dynamics during crises by accounting for political trust’s relational and situational nature. I analyze the rally-around-the-flag effect of the pandemic on political trust that previous research has found, breaking it down for specific political parties and two domains of trust – trust in parties to handle the pandemic and climate change. I use data from a survey experiment implemented in the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey (N=3,164), in which questions about how parties handled COVID-19 and how they handled climate change were asked in varying order. Respondents who were first asked about COVID-19, thereby making it more salient than in the group who got questions about climate change first, reported higher trust in the governing parties CDU/CSU and SPD to handle the pandemic. There is no difference in the evaluation of opposition parties' handling of the pandemic depending on the salience of the pandemic. The SPD and one opposition party are also evaluated as more competent to handle climate change if COVID-19 is made more salient. This implies some limited “spillover” of the rally-around-the-flag effect to domains beyond the immediate crisis. Making climate change more salient by asking about it first did not affect participants’ trust in parties to handle climate change.
