Singer Kid Rock in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 28, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
As the 2024 election approached, the MAGA movement seemed to resonate among many younger voters, with videos abounding that portrayed large gatherings of college-aged and 20-something, usually white, usually male Trump supporters donning red hats and mimicking his infamous YMCA dance. But according to a new analysis in the Washington Post, MAGA has entered its “cringe” phase as the president’s approval rating among under-30 voters has cratered from 44 to 29 percent, and sits at just 20 percent among those under 40.
According to MAGA commentator Arynne Wexler, “We were cool for 2½ minutes — that time has passed.”
This comes after the Trump movement reached a new high among younger demographics. During the Biden presidency and 2024 electoral campaign, Trump’s coalition united a range of people who were tired of “the establishment” and its “woke” tendencies. MAGA was perceived as “forbidden and transgressive,” offering a sort of conservative take on counterculture.
“Right-wing politics were kind of the last taboo,” said Passage Press founder Jonathan Keeperman. Or as Conservateur co-founder Caroline Downey put it at the publication’s Make America Hot Again party early last year, “We are the zeitgeist now.”
But due to a combination of policy disappointments and cultural missteps, Trump is losing younger MAGA voters.
In terms of policy, the war in Iran has chased off many young voters who were initially attracted to Trump’s unfulfilled anti-war promises. Others in the MAHA submovement were turned off by his executive order increasing herbicide production. Others still disapproved of how the administration handled the Epstein Files. And the list goes on.
Then there’s MAGA’s increasing cultural cringe. The rise of “Mar-a-Lago face,” for which Republican elites undergo elaborate amounts of plastic surgery. The use of SpongeBob and Call of Duty clips to promote the unpopular war against Iran. Videos of Kash Patel partying with the US men’s Olympic hockey team. And then there was the “All-American Halftime Show," which featured a lip-syncing, 55-year-old Kid Rock as opposed to the actual Bad Bunny Halftime show, the latter being wildly popular among young people.
“If that’s the best we have to offer,” said far-right influencer Nick Fuentes of the Kid Rock performance, “honestly, I’m switching sides.”
According to Natalie Winters, the 25-year-old co-host of MAGA elder Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, many of the remaining young MAGA supporters refuse to recognize that the movement is “looking cringe” due to the psychological concept of “preference falsification,” in which people misrepresent how they feel in order to avoid social rejection. She says that “what is cool now is being brave enough to critique the administration for not fulfilling their campaign promises.”
But for many young voters who, as Jonathan Keeperman put it, “now have to share their politics with their boomer uncle who watches Fox News,” the movement has lost its appeal.