Young voters who backed Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election have delivered a blistering verdict on his second administration.
“We’re a humiliation across the world in terms of foreign policy. The United States is not what it once was, and we can’t seem to drive costs down for the average American,” Zachary, a 25-year-old scientist from Missouri who voted MAGA two years ago, told a New York Times focus group.
The results, published Friday with participants’ surnames withheld, come as polls show Trump, 80, has hit -45 in approval ratings among Gen-Z voters, according to last month’s figures from The Economist.
That same demographic was partly responsible for putting Trump back in the White House, with roughly half of young voters backing him, up from just 37 percent in 2020 and 36 percent in 2016.
Zachary added that Trump’s second stint in the White House has left him completely disillusioned with the American Dream, telling the Times that the oft-cited mantra of “work hard, get ahead” no longer holds true.
“I feel like working hard and having a grinding mind-set is more of the way to meet the bare minimum,” Zachary said. “I’m always working. I’m doing stuff on my off time. And I can save exactly $120 every paycheck.”
Caleb, a 24-year-old management consultant who lives in Maine, was of much the same view when he spoke to the Times. “When I see people working 60-plus hours a week in a trade and not able to make a dent in cost of living, it does feel like it’s gotten tougher, at least, to play by the rules,” he said.
Both men gave Trump just one out of five on a rating scale of how they currently view the president’s second term. “I’d say 1 mostly because I feel there’s a high level of corruption and a lack of transparency within this administration that I definitely either didn’t see or didn’t notice in the first Trump term,” Zachary said.
“I feel like he wants to make it mostly a country for people that are already well off,” he went on. “Most of the policy that comes down isn’t benefiting 80 percent to 90 percent of Americans.”
Caleb added that “it’s hard for me to look at the status quo and not see it as objectively worse when it comes to policy,” adding that most of the changes he’s seen have been “reactive to other issues that were caused during the administration.”
He urged Trump to “focus on sustainable change,” while Zachary thinks the president “needs to be working more for the working-class, average American, rather than being concerned with his own image.”
Trump hasn’t fared much better even among members of the group who rated him higher on that scale. Kim, a 25-year-old medical scribe from Virginia who gave Trump two out of five, told the Times that “nothing seems affordable or feasible right now” and that “the way that he’s acting has just been disappointing.”
Christian, a 25-year-old curriculum adviser from Tennessee who gave the president three out of five, told the Times the president “forgets about certain people in different tax brackets” and that he “makes decisions for maybe wealthier people in the front of his mind.”
Even Alvin, a 24-year-old engineer and New Yorker who rated him four out of five, told the Times that Trump should “keep doing what you’re doing, but at least help us with the economy.”
The Daily Beast contacted the White House for comment on this story.
“President Trump is committed to maintaining Republicans’ majority in Congress,” White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston said. “Young Americans are directly benefitting from President Trump’s policies, which include the largest middle-class tax cuts in history, improved housing affordability, the most secure border in history, and the lowest murder rate since 1900.”
“President Trump will continue to advance his proven economic agenda to accelerate growth, create jobs, and lower costs for Americans,” she added.
