The article examines influence of factors of trust, distrust, and fake news on the level of legitimacy of state power and decisions taken. The position of the authors who establish a clear correlation between the level of legitimacy of the government and the level of development of its democratic institutions is disputed. The legitimacy of power is based on the assessment of the conformity of the position of authority and decisions made to the image of power formed in the civil consciousness and shared ideological positions. The dual nature of legitimacy is noted: in accordance with the defi nition of D. Easton, diff use and specifi c types of legitimacy are distinguished. The types of legitimacy diff er in terms of the dynamics of changes in their level, plasticity, principles of formation and strengthening. Diff use legitimacy is based on the concept of trust. Actualization of positions and assessments of participants in the political process takes place through political communications. Changes in the communication sphere of politics, dictated by the revolutionary development of the Internet technologies, necessitate a qualitative reassessment of the role of factors of trust and distrust in the process of communication between the government and society. Trust and distrust should be considered as autonomous political phenomena that have both a positive and negative impact on the level of legitimacy. Fake news is becoming an irremediable «tax» on political communications between the government and society. The specifi cs of their formation and dissemination, as well as the goals pursued by the authors of fake news, go beyond the scope of political regulation, therefore, the main work to combat their negative eff ects should be focused not on refuting or blocking news, but on the formation of universal media literacy.