AP
Disillusioned with the flailing Democrats, young men are turning to Make America Great Again in 2024.
Over the course of just four years, male voters under 30 have shifted a net of 14 points towards Republicans, according to polling by the Harvard Kennedy School of Politics.
Citing inflation, immigration, the withering of the American dream, the left’s war on “toxic masculinity,” and the former president’s ability to bro-out with their favorite podcasters, young men told The Post what made them ready to get behind Trump this November.
“As far as young male voters are concerned, I feel like the Democrats have no message for them. The Democrats have totally ignored that base,” Alex Bruesewitz, a 27-year-old campaign advisor for Trump, told The Post.
“I think they lack testosterone in the Kamala HQ campaign team.”
The Trump campaign’s strategy of blitzing the bro podcast circuit — speaking to Joe Rogan and Logan Paul — and campaigning on issues important to young men such as immigration and strengthening the economy has been paying off.
Daniel Idfresne, a 20-year-old Syracuse student from Brooklyn, says Trump has all his pals at school talking.
“I hear from my friends who aren’t necessarily into politics that these clips [of Trump on podcasts] naturally pop up on their feeds,” he said. “I think the Trump campaign has been really successful in reaching out to young men, whether they’re politically in tune or not.”
Idfresne casted an early ballot for Trump. He says his primary motivators are inflation and the precarious state of international politics under Biden’s watch.
The latest Times/Siena polls found Trump leads Harris among young men 58 to 37 percent, significantly closing the gap he had in 2020 with Biden. Since taking over the Democratic ticket, Harris has gained with young women, but she is doing no better with young men than Biden.
Team Trump has done a lot to get in front of young male eyes as of late.
The former president has made appearances at UFC matches to cheering audiences, while the Republican National Convention was a testosterone fest, featuring a speech by UFC president Dana White and wrestler Hulk Hogan tearing apart his shirt at the podium to reveal a red Trump-Vance tank top underneath.
Since appearing on “The Joe Rogan Experience” the episode has accumulated 34 million views on YouTube since last Friday. He also was a guest on “This Past Weekend” with standup comic Theo Vonn and “Impulsive” with influencer and pro-wrestler Paul (whom he gifted a T-shirt bearing his mugshot, prompting the podcaster to call him “gangster”).
Seeing Trump bro out with influencers is appealing to young male voters, according to New York Young Republican Club president Gavin Wax.
“Part of the appeal of Trump is his unabashed machismo sort of vibe that he gives off,” Wax, 30, told The Post. “He’s lived a full life, and I think a lot of young men look up to him.”
Trump’s campaign platform — dedicated “to the forgotten men and women of America” — leans into issues that matter to male voters most, like defeating inflation, “[building] the greatest economy in history,” and “[bringing] back the American dream and [making] it affordable again for families, young people, and everyone.”
According to polling by the Wall Street Journal, young men overwhelmingly say the economy is their top issue, and voters under 30 trust Trump more than Harris on it.
Idfresne says Trump’s priorities speak to him: “There’s a general messaging that conservatives provide to young men that you could be the hero of your own story, and they are providing an economic platform that will allow you to succeed.”
Michael Oved, 20, says Trump also appeals to some young voters like him because he’s expanding what it means to be a Republican.
“Trump’s inclusion of RFK [Jr.] in his campaign signifies his intention to diversify the ideas and people in the party, and that’s appealing to young voters,” Oved, a senior at Harvard, told The Post.
Oved is the president of his college’s Republican Club. Over the past year, he’s seen their mailing list on campus grow from 112 members to 885.
He plans to vote for Trump in November, citing the economy, foreign relations, and revitalizing the American dream as his top issues. He also likes how Trump is no-nonsense.
“The youth are kind of fed up with politicians not telling it to them straight. Whether or not people support Trump’s policies, he says it like it is,” Oved said.
Experts say Kamala Harris’s campaign optics and advertising are also pushing young men towards Trump, too.
One widely ridiculed campaign ad targeted “real men” who are “not afraid of women” and are “man enough” to vote for Kamala Harris.
“If a woman wants to be president … I hope she has the guts to look me right in the eye and accept my full-throated endorsement,” an actor sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck said.
The stunt was widely mocked online as the “cringiest ad ever.” Aside from that other than that ad directed towards men, much of Harris’s messaging features and seems directed towards women.
“When you watch the Harris campaign commercials, they are brimming with excited women,” pollster and political consultant Frank Luntz told The Post. “There’s hardly a man in sight. Some men have noticed this and offered it as a reason why they don’t feel welcomed in the Harris campaign.”
Juan Llano, 24, says messaging like this is just part of a larger war on masculinity.
“I’ve seen too much craziness in the past few years from the left, and I’m tired of it,” Llano, a senior at Emory University, told The Post.
He voted for Biden in 2020, a choice he chalks up to influence from biased media sources and social media. In 2024, though, he’s choosing Trump because he’s concerned about promoting free speech while “fighting wokeness.” Plus, Elon Musk’s endorsement helped seal the deal.
“It feels like we’re being attacked and demonized and even dehumanized — at least for me, and I think for other young men,” Llano said. “It feels like we’re being threatened, and we feel more comfortable voting for Trump.”