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Summary

Donald Trump’s popularity among Generation Z voters has sharply declined since the 2024 election, according to a new Economist/YouGov poll.

His net favorability among 18-29-year-olds has dropped from +19 in November to -18, raising concerns for Republicans about sustaining youth support.

While Trump gained ground with young voters in 2024, recent policies—such as his mass deportation plan and targeting of DEI initiatives—may have contributed to this decline.

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[-] missandry351@lemmings.world 26 points 3 days ago

How was he popular in the first place

[-] HK65@sopuli.xyz 25 points 3 days ago

Gen Z desperately wants change, any change and Dems were against change.

That's my take at least.

[-] Rakonat@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

It's more that Gen Z wants change without putting in effort. They (and millennials too) aren't voting in primaries at all let alone showing up in non Presidental elections so all parties are putting money and effort into candidates that appeal to older, more conservative voters that actual show up.

The younger people I work with and interact with on a regular basis that admit they voted for Trump say they didn't do it because he appealed to them but because they had some protest against Harris or Biden. Dems dropped the ball entirely this election but the majority of voters fail to turn out and prove their desire for change and progressive candidates is anything but talk.

[-] HK65@sopuli.xyz 11 points 3 days ago

There wasn't a primary to vote against Harris in though. I'm not bashing you, it's just that was a mistake IMO.

[-] Rakonat@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

There was primary for congressional seats where the actual change Gen Z keeps saying they want will have to come from. And there was basically no participation there nationwide for their generation.

[-] HK65@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

I see plenty of change coming right now from the office of the President though.

[-] Snowstorm@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago

Half of Trump votes and a bigger part of abstentions are a protest directed at the economic system that, in the aftermath of Covid, got rich people richer while most people got reduced buying power in the form of inflation.

Then surprise surprise: sh!t policies and more inflation. Can Trump keep control of this growing rage or…

[-] pjwestin@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

There's also a lot of incel Zoomers. I think that's where the bulk or his youth support came from.

[-] Snowclone@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

It's so stupid because it's entirely typical for guys 12-22 to not be getting laid, and the boys who get sucked into this extremist bullshit shouldn't be thinking they are victims of anything other than typical adolescents. The dumb kid to neo nazi pipeline is really shitty and clearly still works very effectively.

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[-] Zero22xx 19 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I get that these kids were brainwashed a little but what bothers me is that it was never any secret what was happening to women's rights and LGBTQ+ rights but they went for it anyway. It wasn't some secret plot or trick, these people told us all exactly what they're about.

Even if they don't care about queer people, they happily sold out the rights of their own mothers because the word of some ex reality TV star meat head was more important to them. I feel like even if I was that age being bombarded by propaganda, I would've woken the fuck up the moment they started going after my mother and my sisters.

I actually saw a story on Reddit shortly after the election, that's a double whammy in this regard. It was a divorced woman who is currently in a relationship with another woman, telling the story of how her own son visited her and fessed up to voting for Trump and happily said out loud "I don't agree with gay people." Based on the reactions she described afterwards, this dumb piece of shit kid only realised that the people he was hating included his own mother, after it was already too late.

It's all fucked. I forgive these kids to an extent but I know that when I was that age, I did in fact have a sense of morality and could in fact use my own brains to figure things out for myself.

[-] seejur@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago

They voted for the memes, and are now in the process of realizing real life is not a meme

[-] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 244 points 5 days ago

Good news, having such an eye-awakening experience at an impressionable age can drive people left-wing for their lifetime. Same has happened during Trump-1, Bush-2 and Bush-3, (now in Canadian politics) the Walkerton Crisis, the Mulroney days, and now hopefully with Doug Ford.

Bad news: They already got played, and they might get played again in 4 years with billions of big tech money intended to distract the masses.

[-] gdog05@lemmy.world 150 points 5 days ago

We're going to be damned lucky if we get the chance for people to be played again.

[-] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 33 points 5 days ago

It will happen, might take a generation or three.

This is all so depressing... Its like there needs to be a massive war every so many years so people remember why it's important to have a democracy and be kind to one another.

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[-] SynonymousStoat@lemmy.world 27 points 5 days ago

We'll probably find out in 2 years when seats of Congress are up for election again.

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[-] wolfeh 38 points 4 days ago

Be aware: Newsweek put out a string of content before the election, making it clear that Harris was winning and that Democrats were in the clear when few other news outlets were being that optimistic. Recently, they've been putting out a lot of articles talking about how the Orange One is losing popularity. While I hope that's true, they definitely have a weird angle. Take their content with a big grain of salt.

[-] shasta@lemm.ee 6 points 3 days ago

Where can I buy large grained salt?

[-] hark@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Kosher salt is large grained.

[-] tehfishman@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

You can put a bunch of it in the microwave with a bowl of water to make a humid environment that might help it to form into a huge chunk. Then you can put it in a sock to persuade your local billionaire to stop fucking up society and the planet. I may have left out a few steps, what were we talking about again?

[-] RiceBowl@discuss.tchncs.de 33 points 4 days ago

Little too late for that…

been kind of sad for me, the process of realizing these kids were fucking stupid.

i had really high hopes for some reason.

[-] P00ptart@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

Growing up with social media.

[-] OneTwoThree@mander.xyz 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I genuinely think the type of social media you use in your youth has a very strong influence on the type of person you become:

Instagram/Snapchat: Average, slightly sociable

Reddit/Tumblr: Insightful, knowledgeable about niche topics/social issues (respectively), better at writing, worse at socializing

Twitter: Argumentative, not really capable of cohesive long-form thought, great at one liners though

TikTok: Mindless beasts conditioned through a variable-ratio positive reinforcement algorithm to uncritically believe whatever thoughts China wants to insert in their brains: "The US is awful!!" Heck yeah! "Because of this, we're going to not vote/vote for Trump!" Wait, what?

[-] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 106 points 5 days ago

We thought GenZ was going to save us, but that was bullshit.

I work with a few in a DEEP BLUE state in a field in which the majority of my co-workers have been liberal and they're Trumpers. Morons who grew up on social media and had their minds warped by it. Fell for the alpha male bullshit too.

They aren't going to save us. They're pretty dumb.

[-] gmtom@lemmy.world 54 points 5 days ago

Surprise the iPad kid generation that were brought up on 4chsn derived troll culture are not bastions of virtue.

Like I have a zoomer nephew, and he's genuinely a good kid at heart, and his mum raised him well, but he also showed me things like videos of people harassing kids in video games until they meltdown like it was the funniest shit in the world, and also thinks Trump is super funny.

Being a shitty person is just good "content".

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[-] Professorozone@lemmy.world 59 points 4 days ago

I mean who knew he would be against DEI and immigrants?

[-] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 34 points 4 days ago

I think these polls are bullshit. The same gen Z kids who voted Trump after being brainwashed for years watching Rogan, Shapiro, etc rail on DEI, trans, 'wokeism' and 'open borders' haven't suddenly changed their opinion once Trump's started enacting policies that aim to enact those goals.

These kids just recognize how unpopular these actions are in the wider community and are lying to pollsters now. It's virtue signalling. They'll continue to vote right-wing imho

[-] DiagnosedADHD@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago

It could be as simple as losing access to grants, scholarships, and general funding. Add to that any of them hoping for a government job doing something they're passionate about (wildlife/park/environmental sciences) only to have their future prospects crushed by an ignorant foreigner.

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[-] RufusFirefly@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago

Either all of the polling sites are lying or that impotent clown still has a 47% approval rating. Why? I have no idea.

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 53 points 4 days ago

Cannot wait for the types of gen z voters that voted for a dipshit like donvict to turn around and blame "boomers" for their issues.

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It’s almost like a ton of zoomers weren’t paying attention to what the fuck he was doing last time around.

[-] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 72 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

If you think about it, a TON of zoomers were maybe 10 years old when he started his shit.

It's literally all they have known for most of their formative years. I blame their parents more then them. They never talked to their kids about what he's doing apparently.

I tell my two kids that what he is doing is evil, and anyone who follows him is broken in some form or another. I tell them ALL the stuff our country has done, good and bad, and to keep learning, keep questioning, and most of all: beware of people like him. They are world enders.

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[-] stickly@lemmy.world 29 points 5 days ago

A lot of people were the same age when GWB was signing the Patriot Act and didn't realize the consequences of his presidency until much later. Young people are impressionable but they do change.

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[-] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 25 points 4 days ago

One would think watching Nazi salutes on inauguration day of a GOP president going blitzkrieg all around the world, would be enough to forget about them reaching the White House again... but, seriously, this is the USA.

[-] randoot@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago

You assume they read about history and know what Nazis were beyond tiktok memes.

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[-] eletes@sh.itjust.works 53 points 5 days ago

I don't trust polls anymore. Trump wasn't supposed to win '16 and it wasn't supposed to be a blowout '24 according to polls.

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[-] DrFistington@lemmy.world 43 points 5 days ago

That's odd because the only Gen z people who liked Trump were the paid Russian propogandists that were creating all the fake bullshit memes for him

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 42 points 4 days ago

I listened in on a conversation between two young male Kroger union members before the election (the store is unionized so maybe that was an assumption, it's a right to work state...)

They both agreed they were voting for Trump. I can't speak to their unspoken motivations but what I can tell you is they absolutely voted on vibes and didn't have a goddamn clue what was coming for them.

I don't know what brain rotted the Gen Z boys in a way that didn't work on the Gen Z girls but I can tell you it wasn't fake, those kids are not alright.

Maybe this will be Gen Z's Afghanistan and Iraq, the events that push them left against Republican abuse, but I'm not sure they'll have a chance when they're getting a steady diet of algorithmic propaganda.

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[-] thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world 55 points 5 days ago

I hate articles like this. He won, he is in power. He will be in power for 4 years. His popularity doesn't matter anymore.

[-] quinceyBones@lemmy.zip 75 points 5 days ago

Does if you want a revolution.

[-] cm0002@lemmy.world 51 points 5 days ago

The popularity of the President has a great effect on what happens in the midterm elections.

Ofc that's dependant on us having a free and fair midterm election by then

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[-] SabinStargem@lemmings.world 3 points 3 days ago

I don't think it is young people that are the problem. Recall, it is largely billionaires and elderly statesmen that either supported the coup, or stood aside. Of all people, they should understand the consequences and it is their job to guide the nation. That includes telling people how neat government programs can be.

Our most influential people either failed to communicate, or are aligned with the plot to some degree. Young folks are too busy slaving away to dedicate time to politics, which requires time, money, and education. Things that society has consistently transferred towards the wealthy, while denying the poor.

[-] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 23 points 5 days ago

Well yeah, the memes have stopped.

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this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2025
509 points (100.0% liked)

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