How Trump Took Back America
Americans across the country took to the polls on election night to vote for Trump, but surprisingly, many were members of Gen Z.
A lot has happened since Trump was last in office, but one thing is clear in 2024: the Republican Party is back and arguably has more momentum than it’s had in years. With Trump’s growing influence over Gen Z, it raises questions about just how liberal this generation truly is and how he gained popularity with the youth of America today. Maybe it’s because countless members of Gen Z felt the Democrats had become disconnected from their concerns. As Bernie Sanders said on X the day after the election, “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.”
Trump’s shared values and collaborations with popular podcasters and celebrities like Logan Paul and Theo Von drew many young men (and women) to look at Trump differently this election. What was an 11-point lead in the 2020 election for Biden among young men became a 2-point lead for Trump against Harris. According to exit polls, a 35-point lead for Biden among young women became a smaller 24-point lead for Kamala. Trump also received endorsements from notable figures such as Joe Rogan, whose audience is 81% male and 56% is between the ages of 18-34 year old.
With 59% of Americans approving of Trump’s handling of the Presidential transition, according to CBS News, it seems, to many, that Trump has won not just the election but a belief among the majority of Americans that it’s headed in a better direction than the last 4 years. Four years ago, many Trump supports felt the need to hide their support according to a 2020 Granite State Poll. I remember the times when speaking out for Trump felt like a death sentence for social relationships. I could have never imagined that only a few years after Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem that we’d see NFL players doing Trump dance on live TV after scoring a touchdown. But that’s precisely what happened.
The signs were all there. If you’ve opened up TikTok over the past two years, you would’ve seen the rise of the conservative and traditional values growing in popularity on the app. The mob wife aesthetic, the old-money trend, and the “trad wife,” all became popular trends and romanticizing the idea of being a stay-at-home mom and pushing back against so-called modern feminism became more socially acceptable. TikTok has a significant impact on trends for many members of Gen Z, and played a role in young women learning about and embracing more conservative values.
To understand how this happened, we first need to look at social media’s impact on this election and how it differed from the past two, specifically on the rise of independent media’s influence on young voters.
In 2016, Trump relief heavily on mainstream media’s obsession with him resulted in an unprecedented amount of earned media that amplified his visibility. In 2020 it was a lot harder for him to break through the noise because of the mainstream media’s negative portrayal of him. In 2024, Trump's took a new approach to reach voters by embracing podcasts to reach younger audiences that weren’t paying attention to mainstream news. He appeared with numerous podcasters, such as Aiden Ross, Theo Von, and Joe Rogan. In the 2016 and 2020 elections, Trump lacked the strong youth support that both Clinton and Biden had, and he desperately needed to gain that support to win. His son, Barron, a member of Gen Z, suggested he campaign in places where young people were, such as podcasts and online channels. Although most podcasters didn’t encourage their listeners to vote for Trump, the long-form conversations about everything from politics to pop culture allowed the listeners to see him in a different light than what they had thought about him before.
Kamala also embraced podcasts to reach younger audiences, and earned endorsements from celebrities like Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Oprah Winfrey. However, the strong anti-elitism and anti-establishment sentiment that has soared over recent years worked against Kamala. Influencers have no idea what it’s like to work a 9-5, or to barely be able to make ends meet, so what gives them any right to tell the average American who to vote for? While Trump earned expected endorsements from mainstream right-wing figures, the support of independent podcasters and celebrities gave the impression he was more in touch with what everyday Americans care about. Trump’s populist values also made him more relatable to working and middle-class Americans rebelling against the status quo and establishment politics. Although the mainstream media and A-listers tried to paint Trump as a right-wing extremist, independent Americans saw something different than previous elections, and Trump’s approach this election helped many see Trump in a new light.
The decline of mainstream media and the rise of independent news, particularly on social media, had already exposed young people to more independent viewpoints. For many, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News are viewed as propaganda outlets used by the establishment politicians to drive their agendas. Particularly after the pandemic, a drastic fall in trust ensued. When the media was telling them one thing, but what they saw with their own eyes told them something different, it led them to question who they used to blindly trust. For example, after Trump’s attempted assassination at one of his rallies, CNN’s headline read, “Secret Service rushes Trump off stage after he falls at rally,” completely ignoring the fact that multiple bullets were shot at him. And of course the “very fine people on both sides” scandal, where mainstream media outlets intentionally misrepresented Trump to make it seem like he was commending violent white supremacists, and ignored the fact that he said “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists.” It should come as no surprise that only 31% of Americans trust the media and their ability to report the news fully, fairly, and accurately. This led many to place a higher level of trust in podcasts and independent news channels, and it played a big role in why so many young Americans formed a different opinion about Trump in 2024.
As a result of these podcasts, young men and women began to see Trump as cool and trendy. Many young people often rebel against the values they are taught, including the left-wing ideals that are discussed in classrooms across America. For years, young people could not get away from topics around gender and race ideology, but public opinion suggests many are growing tired of it. For example, only 26% of Americans believe athletes should compete on teams matching their claimed identity rather than their birth sex, and 74% strongly or somewhat oppose teaching white students they are inherently privileged while students of color are oppressed. These numbers suggest Americans aren’t aligned with what they’re hearing in the classroom and from mainstream media and celebrities. Add in Trump’s defiant reaction to the attempted assassination, it’s no wonder that he’s being viewed as an anti-establishment figure among a growing number of younger Americans.
During Trump’s first presidency the media consistently portrayed him in a negative light, and claims of him being a sexist, racist, and homophobe were never-ending. However, when people lose trust in the media, they are less likely to believe and question those claims. Suppose you listen to Trump’s policies and put aside what the media feels about him. In that case, the majority of Americans tend to agree with what he’s saying. 58% of Americans believe that the US should deport illegal immigrants back to their original countries, 71% support school choice, and only 37% believe abortion should be legal in the second trimester and 22% in the third. To be clear, Trump has never proposed a total abortion ban federally and believes it is a state issue, but also has made it clear that he doesn’t think it should be legal later into a pregnancy. And it’s not like these are issues only Republicans support. In 2008, during her Democratic Primary campaign against Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton stated her strong support for deporting illegal immigrants who committed crimes, 'no questions asked,' and said that even law-abiding illegal immigrants should pay a fine and move to the back of the line to apply to stay in the country. Just a few years later, this policy is now labeled as far-right by many Democrats. Clearly, the average American does not align with this change in perspective.
The policies that Trump talked about in his campaign resonated with many Americans, particularly young people struggling behind high costs and interest rates that leave them feeling further behind than their parents were at the same age. During Biden’s first 45 months, inflation was up 20.1% compared to Trump’s 7.1%. From December 2016 to 2020, the average cost of a gallon of gas dropped from $2.37 to $2.28, while prices soared under Biden to $5 as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war where he implemented a policy prohibiting buying from the third biggest producer of oil. With life getting more expensive during Biden’s term, many Americans wanted to see change. Kamala Harris represented the status quo to many voters, and Trump came across as a return to the more affordable life that existed during his first term.
The divisiveness of Trump isn’t going away anytime soon, but Trumps support is arguably more diverse than any Republican in modern history, and many young Americans are more optimistic about the future because he won the election. Trump may have lost supporters among seniors, but he gained support among other age groups that better represent the future of America. We may continue to hear claims that democracy is going to end under Trump, but we’ve already lived through four years of a Trump presidency. We should feel pretty confident that our future isn’t as bleak as many on the left want us to believe.