CNN’s resident data guru couldn’t help but laugh at how far Donald Trump’s support has fallen with a key demographic who fueled his return to the White House.
In fall 2024, Trump was polling 7 points ahead of his opponent Kamala Harris on the economy with men under 30.
Today, his net approval rating on the economy is -59 points with the same demographic, CNN’s Harry Enten said in a segment Sunday.
“I’m laughing because the turn is so absurd,” he said. “This is a turnaround of 66 points in less than two years’ time—just a year and a half—in terms of feeling towards Trump and the economy.”
Given that the economy is the top issue for young men, Trump went from winning young men by +1 in 2024, making him the first Republican nominee this century to carry that demographic, to posting a dismal -55 point approval rating with that group.
Gallup polling conducted this year found that just 29 percent of adults under age 35 said they would buy a home in the next five years, compared to 53 percent between 2016 and 2018. The number fell by nearly half in just a decade, Enten said.
Just 43 percent of respondents ages 15 to 34 thought it was a good time to find a job, compared to 77 percent in 2019, the Gallup poll found.
“Young men in particular, those who powered Donald Trump to victory, they are feeling a lot of frustration with the economy,” Enten said.
That wasn’t the only issue turning off young male voters, though.
Men under 30 also oppose Trump’s war in Iran, with his approval rating on foreign policy falling from +9 compared to Harris to -54 overall this year.
“Fifty-four points underwater—Jacques Cousteau never got that low,” Enten quipped.
The president has lost other key demographics as well, with Latino voters who shifted sharply toward the GOP in 2024 now showing signs of drifting away from the president, according to a poll this month from the Pew Research Center.
Trump’s overall approval rating fell this month to 36 percent, the lowest of any point during either of his terms except the immediate aftermath of the deadly Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, according to Gallup.
Although the president isn’t on the ballot this fall, Republican strategists such as Karl Rove have warned that Trump’s “dangerously low” approval ratings could sink Republicans’ hopes of keeping control of Congress in the November midterm elections.
