The Kids Aren’t Alright With MAGA

But these young voters are the future. It’s basic Campaigns 101 that if a candidate can hook younger voters, they keep coming back even after that election is over. In the last presidential election, 48% of eligible residents under the age of 25 cast ballots. Going up each age bucket, the numbers grow, topping 75% for those 65 and over, according to Kaiser data.

That same year, voters under 30 made up just 14% of the total presidential vote, according to network exit polls. But Trump carried 43% of them—meaning he still got around 1 million votes from voters in that age range.

It’s clear in the data and on-the-ground conversations with younger conservatives that Trump might not be building a machine that he could easily transfer to the next MAGA warrior, however. 

After months of the punditocracy revisiting Trump’s efforts to use podcasts and the manosphere to bring out younger voters in 2024, it seems there are limits to memes. Since coming back to office, Trump has seen his approval ratings among all voters under the age of 30 fall a whopping 50 points, according to YouGov surveys. In fact, he has a net negative of 45 points in that age group.