President Donald Trump was able to deploy a strategy in the 2024 campaign to recruit young male voters by building relationships with key influencers and podcasters. That now appears to be falling apart after less than a year in office.
Trump's approval rating among all voters is crashing, but among Generation Z, those born between approximately 1997 and 2012, the rating not only fell but flipped.
According to the recently released Harvard Youth Poll, men between 18 and 29 years old only approve of Trump's work by 32 percent and now prefer the Democratic takeover of Congress by 12 percent.
The Independent noticed that an October YouGov poll in partnership with the Young Men’s Research Project found that the younger batch of Gen. Z is even worse for Trump. Just 27 percent of male voters born between 2002 and 2007 say the country is on the "right track."
"Yale’s Spring 2025 Youth Poll seemed to validate the Gen Z split: voters aged 18-21 backed Republicans on a sample midterm ballot by 12 points, while those 22-29 leaned Democrat by six points," wrote the Project on the group's Substack last week.
The numbers are consistent with what pollsters began seeing in September, when young male voters began abandoning Trump over the economy and the administrations' handling of the federal investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Those younger Gen. Z voters are particularly displeased by Trump's ICE crackdown, angry over the elimination of vaccine requirements and infuriated by the administration's move to fire thousands of federal employees. Each topic ranks over 60 percent in disapproval.
Charlie Sabgir, the author of the report, told Vox, “Odds are they were not aware of just how unstable everything felt during that first administration. So they would feel buyer’s remorse.”
Meanwhile, a new Politico report showed "cracks are starting to show" as more than just young voters are abandoning Trump. In fact, a huge chunk of Trump 2024 base appears to be looking for the exits.
The cultural shift is notable as well. Young Gen. Z men reject the idea of a "Trad Wife" staying home while they're the breadwinners. A whopping 62 percent are against it. Older Gen. Z men oppose it as well, but only by a slim majority (51 percent).
"Older Gen Z men were also more inclined to perceive feminism as biased toward women, and to question the legitimacy of transgender men’s gender identity," the Project report said.
Both age groups overwhelmingly disagree with the statement that "gay men aren't really men."
It doesn't necessarily mean that Democrats are benefiting.
"Young men want what any voter wants: leaders who deliver. Until they see the progress they crave, their votes are up for grabs," the Project report showed.
A study group from Syracuse University and the research firms Engagious and Sago similarly found in October that Gen. Z may have been part of Trump's coalition in 2024, but they're angry that he's failed to deliver on any of his promises while lying about others.
A 22-year-old Nevada resident and registered Republican lamented, "I believe my trust in the administration has completely nosedived because of how he's mishandled things."
