The gap between trust in central and local governments remains an unsolved puzzle in social sciences. Based on existing theoretical frameworks and our analyses of the Asian Barometer Survey data (2001–2016), we found three types of trust gaps in Asian societies: equal trust, paradoxical trust, and hierarchical trust. We speculated the differences could be explained by macro-level political freedom and individual-level predictors such as how people consume political news. Multilevel analyses revealed the political freedom of a society is a critical predictor of the trust gap: people from politically unfree societies tend to trust their central governments the most. Furthermore, freedom and frequency of news consumption interact in shaping political trust: in free societies, people who follow news frequently have less political trust; in unfree societies, the opposite is true, suggesting media propaganda plays a role in shaping political trust. This study helps to explain authoritarian resilience in East and Southeast Asia.