Trump Has Given Back All Gains He Made With Gen Z in Six Months

Once considered a central force in its return to 2024, young male voters now express an increasing disappointment and disillusionment with Donald Trump’s second term.

A CBS News / Yougov survey published last weekend revealed that Trump’s net approval among 18 to 29 year olds had almost collapsed, 55% in February at only 28% in July.

The reversal is particularly striking given the way in which Trump’s Trump’s campaign in 2024 aggressively targeted young men. His appearances on the programs hosted by Joe Rogan, Theo Von, Andrew Schulz and Adin Ross – were supported with a thrust calculated in the “Manosphere” podcast ecosystem – made this demography by a margin of 14 points on the vice -president Kamala Harris, according to the surveys.

This worked – until this is not the case. Barely six months after the start of his second administration, influential voices like Schulz and Rogan raised their two concerns, as are many at low height voters who make up their audience who now express the buyer’s remorse on social media and in the survey.

A recent Harvard youth survey revealed that almost half of young men believe that Trump is harming the economy. Only 17% say they trust Congress, while 70% think that elected officials are mainly motivated by personal interest. 37% additional say that they “find it difficult to get out of it” and a majority report feeling pessimistic about the future. And this investigation was carried out before taking into account public opinion on the saga of Jeffrey Epstein which collapsed the media coverage this summer, turning into an increasing political problem for the White House.

“ Trump overpromised ”

Trump’s winning campaign messaging explained the frustrations concerning economic instability, identity policy and cultural marginalization. But now, months after his second mandate, a number of these voters reconstruct their support – even if the president has held his base on many promises of cultural war he made.

Part of the disillusionment stems from a conviction that Trump has overvalued and underestimated. Rachel Janfaza, a writer and researcher who led listening sessions with the voters of the Z generation, said Nowsweek The fact that many young men she interviewed were frustrated by the disconnection between the rhetoric of Trump’s campaign and real world results.

“They voted for him because he met them where they were,” said Janfaza. “But the message must correspond to the messenger. They do not see any results. The rent is always unaffordable, jobs are difficult to find, and they have the impression that their diplomas are obsolete when they get their diploma.”

A survey of the Harvard Institute of Politics in April – just three months from the new administration – found that 47% of men aged 18 to 29 thought that Trump injured the economy, 40% saying that they were less well compensated than during the Biden administration. The social survey earlier this year has also shown that Trump’s economic approval among young men has dropped 14 points in just two months.

But dissatisfaction seems to have increased since its growth, and it extends beyond the economy. Many young men expected Trump to act on the discovery of conspiracy theories that he amplified during the campaign – especially those involving Jeffrey Epstein.

“He promised to release Epstein’s files, to expose the deep state – and they believed it,” said Janfaza. “Now that he is in power and has not followed, they ask:” Why not? “”

Many are no longer ready to accept the explanations of the administration. “It is not only that they are disappointed-they feel duped,” she added.

Win

The data from the cooperative electoral study, one of the largest politically targeted surveys in the United States, suggest that more than young men voted republican in 2024, they have not become more conservative. In fact, they remain largely progressive on issues such as abortion rights, systemic racism and immigration – indicating their change may have been circumstantial, not ideological.

Many online commentators refute this theory, suggesting the dissatisfaction of generation Z with Trump is that he did not go far enough in promises such as mass deportations. “Gen Z is so much further right than Trump that they disapprove of his work because they feel that he is not going hard enough,” wrote a popular anonymous account X.

Richard V. Reeves, founding president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, does not buy this explanation. He said that the original swing to Trump was mainly reflecting a generational rejection of democratic messaging. “Democrats simply did not participate in their vote,” said Reeves Nowsweek. “When they stretched out, it was like allies – never directly like men.”

He also rejected the idea that 2024’s counterposter was rooted in anti-feminism, as some commentators suggested after the elections. “They were not angry young men rebel against feminism,” he said. “It was a backlash against the focus – it is constantly informed that they were the problem.”

As Reeves pointed out, this dissatisfaction does not seem to translate into strong support for the Democrats. In other words, the opposition does not benefit from the missteps of its opponents, as is generally the case. A quantus survey led between June 30 and July 2 among 1,000 registered voters, suggests that young voters feel politically homeless, with 43% of respondents of the Z generation saying that none of the two parties represents American values.

As Reeves said, “They are not tribal. Their votes are to be won.”

Write American scientistAdam Stanaland has arrived at a similar conclusion, arguing that the support of young men in Trump was not only political – it was personal. “In a culture that is equivalent to” being a man “for financial and protection success, their anger was a direct response to pressures and threats,” he wrote.

The survey supports this volatility. Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at the San Diego State University and author of Generations: real differences between generation Z, millennials, generation X, baby boomers and silentswrote in The Atlantic that the partisan shifts of generation Z are largely motivated by the rupture of the self -employed, not by a deeply rooted ideological change.

“If the attitudes of young people persist as they get older, the Z generation may never be satisfied with how things are happening in the country,” said Twenge. “They will want to” vote the bastards “in the next elections, whatever the ruling party”.