Young people are turning on Trump, new poll shows

President Donald Trump is fast losing support among 18 to 29-year-olds, a key demographic that helped drive his return to the White House in 2024, with his favorability now in freefall from +10 in February to -46 now, according to CNN’s chief data analyst.

Appearing on OutFront with Erin Burnett on Thursday evening, commentator Harry Enten presented the latest findings from CBS News and YouGov and said: “This type of drop happening so quickly – you just don’t see drops like that. It’s stunning! I think the word of the day, to borrow a phrase from the current president – yuge, yuge.”

He pointed out that just 31 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds voted for Trump against Joe Biden in 2020, according to CNN exit polls, but, in 2024, the Republican nominee won 43 percent of the same demographic, helping him beat Kamala Harris with ease.

“There was more of a jump in his support among Generation Z than any other generation. They were key for him,” Enten said.

In the immediate aftermath of the president’s astonishing comeback victory last year, much of the credit was given to his youngest son, Barron Trump, for steering him towards guest spots on right-wing podcasts like those hosted by Joe Rogan, Theo Von, Logan Paul and others to secure the votes of the disaffected young men making up the “manosphere.”

However, Rogan, for one, appears to have become increasingly critical of Trump of late and has called his crackdown on undocumented migrants “f***ing nuts” and, most recently, ridiculed him for texting like a “79-year-old kid.”

The comedian has also walked away from the man he endorsed’s ongoing insistence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him by an elaborate conspiracy to hack voting machines and destroy ballots.

“I don’t think they have any evidence,” Rogan said in August. “I think there’s a lot of speculation and there’s a lot of consideration about mail-in ballots. There’s a lot of shenanigans. There’s a good record of shenanigans and there’s the reality of any kind of electronics can be hacked.”

Another recent CBS News/YouGov poll from late November offered plenty of clues as to why young people might be feeling disillusioned at the close of Trump’s first year back in office.

That survey revealed widespread disapproval of his administration’s aggressions towards Venezuela, concern about the inflated cost of groceries, anxiety about the president’s mass deportation program and a desire for more disclosures about Jeffrey Epstein, with respondents expressing distrust of Trump’s rhetoric on all four subjects.

November, meanwhile, saw the youthful democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani win the New York City mayoral race at a canter by running an inspirational campaign on an affordability agenda that caught the imagination of younger voters.

Enten noted that data from another pollster, Gallup, had recently revealed that 49 percent of people aged 18-34 now hold a favorable opinion of socialism, compared to 43 percent who still feel warmly about capitalism.

Yet another recent poll, this time from McLaughlin and Associates, looked ahead to the question of Trump’s successor and found that while Vice President JD Vance was way out in front, his August lead of 20 points had been reduced to 18 by Donald Trump Jr.

The president’s eldest son remains a popular figure among his MAGA base. He has so far not been tainted by association with the world of Washington politics, so he could be nicely poised to run in his father’s stead in 2028, should he choose to do so.