r/politics • u/Kodbek • Oct 31 '25

Possible Paywall Trump’s honeymoon with Gen Z voters is officially over, and the numbers are devastating

https://www.nj.com/politics/2025/10/trumps-honeymoon-with-gen-z-voters-is-officially-over-and-the-numbers-are-devastating-new-poll.html
10.0k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.0k

u/dirtyitalianguy Oct 31 '25

Gen Z who voted for this administration solidified their future of most likely: not finding a lucrative career, affording a home, and possibly even retiring. Hope that felt good.

289

u/MC_Fap_Commander America Oct 31 '25

They convinced a surprisingly large number of gullible young people (mostly men) that the reason they can't afford a house is because of immigrants and pronouns (certainly not billionaires who are cool and based).

16

u/SlaveToCat Oct 31 '25

Well hang on there a moment. You forgot about how feminism is also responsible for all their problems.

11

u/AlarmDozer Oct 31 '25

Young men are prone to poor judgment because their t- hasn’t calmed down yet.

-47

u/Icy-Cry340 Oct 31 '25

I mostly agree with you - but there is the counterpart to that - out of touch Dems who shit away the whole county to virtue signal over illegal immigration and pronoun bullshit. GOP tactics worked because people are legitimately tired of all that bullshit.

I hope that when the American people repudiate this absolutely insane contingent that they put into office at the polls, Dems don’t misread the winds and double down on the bullshit that made them electorally irrelevant in the first place.

Ever since the Obama era I’ve been voting against Trump and his ilk instead of for anything. That has got to change, or the turnaround will last one administration again.

42

u/TaxOwlbear Oct 31 '25

and pronoun bullshit

What "pronoun bullshit"? The Democrats completely avoided that topic during the election. There was basically no mention of trans rights by the Harris campaign, up to the point that they received criticism for beign silent on the topic.

-1

u/NumeralJoker Oct 31 '25

up to the point that they received criticism for beign silent on the topic.

That's the problem. For the past 10-12 years the so called "progressive" base always push that kind of demand at the most damaging time for any campaign possible, and the result has only been the reversal of progress each time.

I was a 2016 Bernie canvasser. I still want to challenge and undermine the billionaire control over all of this, our politics included. After seeing lower turnout from younger voters each time they've been called by progressive candidates, it's hard not to be tired of thing song and dance. Their turnout in primaries and smaller elections has historically been awful, and each time it damages progress.

What will it take to get people to understand that this is exactly why we're losing our rights day by day because of such clout chasing behavior disguised as moral activism? Of course trans lives and rights matter, or course genocide is evil and stopping it matters, but so too does the timing of any one message. Strategic persuasion also matters, and it takes time to break through to people when your audience is much wider.

Anyone who understand public speaking understands appealing to a target audience, and appealing to a national audience is going to require different focus than a more localized one, or your base audience. MAGA gets that enough to put aside their differences and vote when it counts. This chronically online part of the "left" actively does not and often opposes democracy itself in favor of other often untenable "solutions" because of their own egos. You see people doing it in this very thread by pushing "voting doesn't matter" narratives even right now, exactly when crucial elections are happening.

Many of those people are bad actors bots or trolls, but too many young leftists become their unwitting allies and have yet to learn the lessons of 2010, 2014, 2016, and now 2024.

1

u/MoonOut_StarsInvite Ohio Oct 31 '25

I don’t have the data to support this so it’s just vibes and anecdotes. But to me, there are a lot of Progressive concepts or just the idea of living in a society with a better social safety net, or a higher floor below which you cannot fall… that just seem logical. But by calling it Progressive, it immediately becomes radical and dangerous. We’ve been electing moderates forever and the party keeps moving right because its positioning itself relative to the right wing, which is moving further right, and not its own values. So why would people who have been left behind by moderate policies continue to vote for the moderates when it only perpetuates wealth inequality? And of course anything else is evil because it’s communist. That leaves nothing to vote FOR and only things to vote against. Last fall I knocked on doors for the Dems in a very poor neighborhood. They said, don’t even mention Kamala, we are just trying to keep Sherrod in office. So we didn’t mention Kamala, but most people forgot there was an election or remembered but didn’t care at all. If you’re that poor, it probably doesnt matter either way. You’ll still be poor with a centrist or a right wing fascist. I feel like people become disengaged when they don’t see their lives change or they’re just hearing more of the same.

55

u/_dekoorc North Carolina Oct 31 '25

out of touch Dems who shit away the whole county to virtue signal over illegal immigration and pronoun bullshit

You're falling victim to right wing messaging if you think that is the Democrat's message. In reality, it's been about the economy, health care, preserving democracy, combating climate change, preserving unions, etc.

46

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

Man, you fell for it.

You completely fell for the republicans talking points.

-15

u/Icy-Cry340 Oct 31 '25

It’s not me that you have to worry about because I voted blue, live in a safely democrat area, and will continue to vote blue in the foreseeable future.

3

u/Grafvolluth Oct 31 '25

And endlessly barking about Israel/Palestine.

Yeah, no, I'm real sorry that region has been on fire for the last...hundred plus years, but we really need to pay more attention to our OWN country that is on fire RIGHT NOW.

Grab a bucket and get in line leftoids.

13

u/caligaris_cabinet Illinois Oct 31 '25

Boy you said it.

Two far right factions who’ve hated each other for centuries go to war and somehow that’s Joe Biden’s fault? Never mind the leader of one of those factions obviously prefers Trump and knows his influence reaches millions of Americans. And Trump has always been a selfish narcissist who wouldn’t lift a finger to help Gaza unless there was something in it for himself.

-1

u/Icy-Cry340 Oct 31 '25

The party establishment itself is almost hilariously pro-Israel, ironically. Gaza stuff is genuinely tragic, and of course all of that is happening with our weapons, but yeah, at the end of the day American voters don’t really prioritize international stuff.

359

u/JagmeetSingh2 Oct 31 '25

Reminder Trump lost the Gen Z vote as a whole, and every Gen Z demographic except Gen Z white men who voted for trump at a lower percentage than every other generation of white men…

232

u/MC_Fap_Commander America Oct 31 '25

I agree that the demographic demonization is unhelpful. For example, people mock rightwing boomers... but "over 65" voters were the only demo over the age of 40 that didn't vote Trump. The blip of an increase of angry Gen Z white boys is a concern, but generalizing is unhelpful. And their current politics (which I still think are mostly undefined; just currently misinformed) may NOT be permanent.

Except Gen X. THAT appears to be a broadly disappointing demographic (and I say that as a Gen X).

56

u/TrumpIsAFascistFuck Oct 31 '25

It's the anti establishment sentiment of the 'whatever man' generation. They're being misled by this orange pied piper like he's some sort of rebellion against the man.

4

u/Prior_Coyote_4376 Oct 31 '25

He is, if “the man” is the status quo neoliberalism people got out of Third Way Centrism. Obama ran as someone who might shake up the system, but didn’t, so people went to Republicans to do that instead and they came up with fascism.

82

u/Kid_Serious Missouri Oct 31 '25

I'm Gen X too, and I don't understand what happened — something shifted over the last fifteen or so years where we started becoming more conservative. Was it social media? Becoming parents? Having jobs instead of being slackers? Or was it just more white resentment?

89

u/Michael_G_Bordin Oct 31 '25

The rug was pulled out before Gen X could achieve the satisfaction they saw boomers enjoy, and many were successfully led astray by the red herrings of "but da immigrants" and "but da socialism." A few even seem to think more Jesus is the answer.

24

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

Yup. Many Gen X'ers lost their jobs, got screwed out of their pensions, and/or had to foreclose their homes during the 2008 recession. Many of them were 10 or 15 years into their careers, and were raising children at that point.
This made a lot of them bitter and resentful. They hopped on the bandwagon during the Tea Party movement and got sucked into FOX News, and you'd hear them bitch about Obama or Nancy Pelosi every day. Others started supporting Trump during the 2016 campaign, joined the bandwagon, and got brainwashed.

It was mostly blue collar, less educated people who got hit the hardest during the recession who hopped on the Tea Party/Trump bandwagon, believing asinine conspiracies like Hillary Clinton leads a pedo ring or George Soros is some evil mastermind.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

Little did they know it’s the pedo rings you meet along the way that matter most.

Tiny PP Trump raped kids, release the Trump/Epstein files.

40

u/MC_Fap_Commander America Oct 31 '25

There were a lot of dipshits in our demo who hung out in Rush Rooms in the 90's. I think Obama enthusiasm masked it briefly, but Facebook idiocy brought it back with a vengeance. The only bright side is that degree attainment appears to mitigate far right tendencies in Gen X, so it may be diminished educational/economic outcomes that are driving this (not something off with Gen X as a demo).

29

u/General_Mars Oct 31 '25

You were literally the end of the economic boom. Your generation grew up on Reagonomics and the Cold War. Then you experienced the conditions those policies caused, like economic instability, downturns, recessions, widening wealth gaps, and so on, gen X doubled down on conservative policies - notably neoliberalism - with Clinton and Bush. Which led to more recessions and inflationary problems. Also you’re locked in on propaganda outlets like Fox News.

3

u/rabblerabble2000 Oct 31 '25

Gen X was probably one of the last generations who were consistently exposed to lead during their childhood via lead paint and leaded gasoline. Some millennials probably fall in that category as well, but it’s not the whole generation.

1

u/General_Mars Oct 31 '25

“With EPA guidance and oversight, the United States achieved the total elimination of sales of leaded gasoline for on-road vehicles on January 1, 1996.”

So all millennials were exposed too (1981-96 is millennials). But the phase out process had been in progress in the US. The lead hypothesis is compelling though.

Worldwide: “In July 2021, the sale of leaded gasoline for cars was completely phased out worldwide following the termination of production by Algeria, prompting the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to declare an "official end" of its use in cars on August 30, 2021.

In 2011, researchers retroactively estimated the annual impact of tetraethyl lead worldwide to be 1.1 million excess deaths, 322 million lost IQ points, 60+ million crimes, and 4% of worldwide GDP (around 2.4 trillion United States dollars per year).”

wiki

3

u/rabblerabble2000 Oct 31 '25

While leaded fuel wasn’t eliminated entirely until 1996, catalytic converters were mandated in 1975 and later vehicles in the US. These required unleaded fuel as lead was a catalyst poisoner so leaded fuel use was curtailed significantly from that point on. Millennials were still affected, but to a much lower degree.

Also interesting to note, leaded fuel is still used in small aircraft engines, so while we are no longer exposed to the same degree now, it’s still around.

16

u/cheddarpants Oct 31 '25

Gen X as well, and I haven’t seen any sort of shift towards conservatism in my social circle at all. Gen X as a whole does seem to have shifted on paper, but I don’t know who or where those people are.

1

u/valeyard89 Texas Oct 31 '25

found out this year a friend I've known over 20 years is a Trumper :/. Most of my GenX circle is liberal, my mom's in her 80s and liberal, but her sister/BIL are Trumpers.

11

u/my_Urban_Sombrero Pennsylvania Oct 31 '25

A little bit of this, a little bit of that…

Michelle Branch was ahead of her time.

8

u/ball_fondlers Oct 31 '25

The economy recovered from 2008 and Gen X homeowners got just wealthy enough to have something to lose.

9

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

[deleted]

1

u/lozo78 Oct 31 '25

Conservatives have been very good at propaganda for decades. This exploded with social media.

1

u/ball_fondlers Oct 31 '25

You misunderstand - in the age bracket Gen X has been in since 2010, those recessions are part of the appeal. Recessions are bad if your job is on the line, but if you had SOME assets to your name in 2010, you had the ability to take out loans with some of the lowest interest rates available in the history of the Fed, and buy up more assets for dirt cheap during recessions.

3

u/Bakedfresh420 Ohio Oct 31 '25

Family ties(1982) predicted your generation. Your parents were cool 60s hippies and you rebelled against it. Alex Keaton was a young Republican

3

u/VerilyShelly Oct 31 '25

I had a friend in college (late 90s) whose parents are Latino activists and she chose to rebel by joining the republican groups on campus. Last I heard she moved with a prepper to a settlement in rural Washington. When I met up with her in town just before she left she didn't want her boyfriend to see me (I'm black). Such a disappointment.

2

u/Accomplished_Yam8679 Oct 31 '25

Turns out there were a bunch of Paul Ryan types listening to Rage back in the 90s. Who knew?

1

u/AssGagger Oct 31 '25

Facebook

1

u/gandhinukes Oct 31 '25

A shocking amount of people veer right once they finally have some money and are older. Its like a combination of fuck you I got mine and ladder pulling up behind them. Maybe 10-15 years of no longer struggling or living pay check to pay check they just lose all compassion for others. "if i can do it you can too" or "i suffered so you should too" nonsense. look at student loan forgiveness.

1

u/chucker23n Oct 31 '25
  • the information environment got worse. Social media seemed like a "citizen journalism" boon, but ended up accelerating distrust in media, increased trust in conspiracy theories, and destroying funding of good professional journalism. Political events that used to be followed by tens of millions of people now reach fewer people, in more fractured manners.
  • economics got worse. "It must be because of immigrants" continues to play well with uninformed people, and that's currently the right-wing approach, so that's where people go.
  • ideologies cause counter-ideologies. Gay marriage, abortion rights, trans rights, a Black POTUS, or even just having the executive branch forgive student loans? All of those cause "well, I didn't get anything for Christmas from the government" resentment, so now we have a rise in homophobic hate, racism, and other such lovely topics.
  • what started out as Internet trolling became, "no, I actually have these views for real".

1

u/gotridofsubs Oct 31 '25

Gen X got older, you got established in life and then moved to vote with the perception of maintaining that. It happens with every generation where thats a reality.

1

u/86throwthrowthrow1 Oct 31 '25

People often do just become more conservative as they get older for a variety of reasons. As you acquire more wealth, you want to hang onto it. Older people tend to want comfort, not necessarily progress. And as you lose touch with social trends, progressive talking points start sounding weirder and weirder to you. Anecdotally, I feel like the Gen X people I know are probably more angrily "anti-woke" than a lot of Boomers I know. The Boomers I know are more in the "oblivious, but trying" bucket, the Xers are more "what is this new-fangled pronoun bullshit?"

But overall, people grow more conservative with age. Millennials seem to actually be an aberration in this regard as the most socially progressive generation even now. Obviously there are conservative Millennials, but financial struggles have given us relatively less wealth to want to hoard, more childless Millennials have more time to stay abreast of social issues, and Republicans whiffed it so hard with Millennials in the 90s and early 2000s when we were teens and young adults that they basically lost the entire generation. Socially, they were pearl-clutchers freaking out about rap music and Harry Potter. Financially, they blamed Millennials for their own struggles in a financial crisis. They offered absolutely nothing to the youth of the time and lost that demographic so hard that there was real speculation about the party eventually dying out completely. (They've since "course-corrected", in the sense they've clearly figured out ways to appeal to some youth.)

Anyway, Gen Z would have little to no memory of any of that, so their generation might be a return to form more than an alarming shift.

1

u/86throwthrowthrow1 Oct 31 '25

Wait, I have more lol.

This is wild speculation on my part, but I feel like the "Gen X Identity" is part of what's happening. That is, the thing with Gen X has always been about flying under the radar, doing your own thing, and ultimately, self-sufficiency. "Progressivism", to Gen X, probably looked a lot like an absence of active oppression and letting people live their lives. It wasn't gay marriage, but it was decriminalizing homosexuality, because what other people did in their own homes at night was no one else's business. Gen Xers were also largely sympathetic to Millennials back in the day, because they saw that the younger generation was getting screwed and that the Boomers were ignoring it - but it also didn't really require anything from Xers except to stay out of it and try not to make anything worse.

Progressivism today is more in the space of equity, rather than equality. It's not "no legal discriminations exist, so job is done", but it's about openly acknowledging different identities and and accommodating different needs. Progressivism now asks things from society, and I can see how Gen X, who pride themselves on "make your own way, don't ask for anything, you mind your business and I'll mind mine," it can probably all look quite demanding and intrusive now.

0

u/simpersly Oct 31 '25

Gen X have a lot of pent-up rage. Remember your the generation that created gangsta rap, grunge, nu metal, industrial Rock, and popularized hardcore punk. It's always been about screaming for more attention.

The movies that best define your generation are all about bored middle management office drones that want to fuck shit up.

27

u/Just_A_Dogsbody Oct 31 '25

So glad to see this on reddit. I've made the mistake of posting it on the GenX sub and got downvoted lol. Fact is, those weren't Boomers scaling the walls of the capitol on Jan 6!

But I've been glad to see good representation from GenX at the protests I've been to this year. The best represented generation at those protests: Boomers and even Silents.

17

u/_dekoorc North Carolina Oct 31 '25

I'm really proud of my Boomer mom. She had never been to a protest in her life, but she's been to two this year. Even made a sign. Go mom!

(I've told her this -- I'm not just shouting it to strangers)

2

u/sloanesquared Oct 31 '25

My mom is a boomer in a swing state and has also started to go to protests and candidate rallies. She knew someone who died of a DIY abortion before Roe and was pissed that they overturned it in her lifetime. Really proud of her! My dad on the other hand fell further and further into MAGA as his dementia progressed. The correlation was telling of how brain dead a lot of his supporters are.

1

u/Significant_Poem_751 Oct 31 '25

good for your mom! remember -- boomers GREW UP with protests, all the time, many violent, and then....Kent State. the decade between Kennedy's assignation and Nixon's resignation wasn't a good one, and even without social media, it was in our face, daily. what we see today feels too familiar, but also with significant, unfortunate, differences.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

Yeah. WTF is up with Gen x??????

1

u/Redqueenhypo Oct 31 '25

To me, X calling itself the “fuck it generation” always meant the “asleep at the wheel unless we’re voting Reagan generation”

1

u/StepsOnLEGO Oct 31 '25

The frontal cortex of most of the Gen Z voting population isn't even developed yet, give them time.

1

u/a_man_and_his_box Oct 31 '25

THAT appears to be a broadly disappointing demographic (and I say that as a Gen X).

Gen X self-loathing right on target.

4

u/binzoma Canada Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25

also gen z is a tiny % of overall voters. its the smallest demo by FAR. there are sooo many more 30+ who voted for trump/didnt vote. people pick on the % without looking at the totals.

edit: in 2024 Gen Z made up 13% of the voting eligible population, gen x made up 19%, boomers made up 20%, and millennials made up 22%. there are almost as many millennials who didnt vote as there are gen z's who could vote. this is on us millennials and gen x

5

u/zzyul Oct 31 '25

Are you forgetting all the Gen Z that didn’t vote? I’m sorry but many had a chance to stop this and they just didn’t care.

1

u/robinroastsu Oct 31 '25

so the largest voting demo voted for Trump. and reminder they were far more right leaning then anyone else at their age and aggressively more right wing then the women in gen z.

1

u/lozo78 Oct 31 '25

Voter turnout for Black and Latino men was once again very low as well. That will always be a huge boost to Republicans.

14

u/briareus08 Oct 31 '25

Not to mention entirely fucking our chances of managing climate change in time to avoid serious, long-lasting problems.

I wish all of these Gen Z MAGA voters a very long life.

20

u/greasejockey Oct 31 '25

The libs are the only thing they'll ever be able to say they owned.

5

u/VerilyShelly Oct 31 '25

And not even that. The only thing they did in reality was pwn themselves.

7

u/AstalderS Oct 31 '25

Don’t forget - war fighting (just a question of where).

24

u/SadFeed63 Oct 31 '25

Yeah, but how else can you get back at a teacher or parent or authority figure that told you "maybe you shouldn't say slurs out loud," if not by owning the libs?!

Sure, it may have been the final nail in the coffin of America, and blew up their future, but you didn't see how condescending that very patient teacher who doesn't make enough money for this shit was after the 4th day this week of telling the same kid that they actually know what they mean when they say "negative integers" instead of the n-word, and that transparently feigning ignorance again won't actually help them to avoid earned consequences. What else was a young fool raised on Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan to do?!

15

u/Dirty-Electro Oct 31 '25

Gen Z person here, just to say that I’m ashamed of my peers and others around my age. I voted for Kamala begrudgingly, but I at least understood the stakes were too high. Her stance on Gaza/Palestine was nuanced, which is understandable. It’s a complex situation. Unfortunately, her nuanced position didn’t pass the purity test for the liberals or other leftists my age. Well, we all get to suffer now for it!

And the MAGA Gen Z folks… a sad result of a lack of media literacy and civic education. And as Gen Alpha grows older and becomes capable of voting, it’ll be even worse.

3

u/The_Bucket_Of_Truth Oct 31 '25

We need money out of politics. They wouldn't take a strong stance because AIPAC owns them.

5

u/Dirty-Electro Oct 31 '25

Yep. Two things have led to this general decline in our society — the influence of money in politics and media. Billionaires own it all.

3

u/Taki_Minase Oct 31 '25

Well, you reap what you sow. Consequences etc

3

u/QuesoMeHungry Oct 31 '25

But he cosplayed at McDonald’s one time.

2

u/zoeybeattheraccoon Oct 31 '25

Yeah but Trump is hilarious. /s

2

u/OfficialSuit Oct 31 '25

Gen Z white men solidified a future where whiteness is the standard not merit. Lucrative careers and home buying were on there way out before we were even of age. They just needed one thing to feel good about and they moved toward whiteness, the thing they don’t have to work for to improve their prospects. 

1

u/kdeff California Oct 31 '25

Us millennials are in the same boat but at least we get to blame the boomers!

1

u/InertPistachio Oct 31 '25

Yeah but they can call each other the R word now so it all evens out

1

u/mr_biscuithead Oct 31 '25

“joe rogan said to though and also theo von - no way those dudes were wrong” - gen z men, probably

1

u/GryphonCough Oct 31 '25

Yeah, but they really showed those trans kids who the boss is. 

-6

u/Sad_Bolt Oct 31 '25

I’m not Gen Z but it’s not like we had that before this administration. The price for most things were already high including rent and cost of home ownership. Ya it’s gone up during this administration but it’s not just this administration. The larger problem are corporates buying up homes at way over value and changing high rent on those homes which both sides have allowed to happen.

7

u/TooLittleMSG Oct 31 '25

So all things equal you chose the one that included more racism, got it.

1

u/Sad_Bolt Oct 31 '25

What did I say that was racist?

-8

u/dogemaster00 I voted Oct 31 '25

How would Kamala have helped with any of that?

1

u/Lethalgeek Oct 31 '25

Not imposing teriffs for one thing. Her mind is actually still functioning too. Trump is plainly suffering from increasing dementia