Young voters who backed Donald Trump in the 2024 election have expressed their outrage at the president for launching a war with Iran.
Joshua Byers, a 26-year-old in the key swing state of North Carolina, told The Washington Post he feels “betrayed” by the so-called “Peace President,” who vowed not to start any new wars as one of his top 2024 campaign promises.
“I don’t know why we are fighting [in Iran] if we have never been attacked,” Byers told a group of young voters taking part in a focus group just outside Charlotte. “I just don’t understand why.”
“I don’t really want to vote anymore,” Byers added. “I’m really starting to just think it just won’t matter… I don’t want to feel responsible for taking a vote and feeling misled, or misjudged, or making a wrong move.”
One of the key reasons Trump beat former Vice President Kamala Harris was because of the significant gains he made among young voters.
However, polls have frequently suggested that the president’s erratic second term and failure to deliver on promises to improve people’s financial hardships have caused the 79-year-old’s support among young people to crater.
“I wouldn’t even say it’s living,” James Wiest, a 23-year-old Republican, told the focus group organized by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics about his ability to make ends meet. “It’s more survival.”
The fallout among young voters could have disastrous consequences for the Republican Party in the 2026 midterms, where the GOP is already widely predicted to suffer heavy losses.
Wiest said Trump potentially overseeing the U.S. “stepping into World War III” has made him less likely to vote in November’s elections.
“I agree with his idea of making America great again, but the way he is going about... it’s not who I thought would be running this country,” he told the Post.
“He is really focusing on stuff that pertains to him, that he is mad about, and he does not care about what we are mad about.”
Lilly Burrow, a 23-year-old who voted for Trump in 2020 and 2024, said she is outraged at the president for “doing Israel’s dirty work” by joining in the attacks on Iran.
“It does change how I feel about Trump,” Burrow said. “He said there would be no new wars, and he said that gas would be below $3 a gallon… I am not happy with him right now.”
Influential podcasters such as Joe Rogan and Andrew Schulz–who were seen as pivotal in convincing young people to back Trump in 2024–have also declared that the president has betrayed the American people by starting a war with Iran.
The White House insisted Trump has not broken his 2024 promises by dragging the U.S. into a new Middle East conflict.
“President Trump campaigned proudly on his promise to deny the Iranian regime the ability to develop a nuclear weapon, which is what this noble operation is seeking to accomplish,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told the Washington Post.
“The President does not make these incredibly important national security decisions based on fluid opinion polls, but on the best interest of the American people.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for further comment.
