Trump’s popularity with young men is collapsing due to ‘unnecessary wars,’ new poll shows

Donald Trump’s popularity with young men is in free-fall, as voters turn their backs on the president for failing to deliver a key campaign promise.

As the commander-in-chief continues to involve the U.S. in foreign affairs and the cost of living rises, his previously rock-solid base looks increasingly uncertain.

Trump’s standing with young men has plunged to 46 percent, down from 56 percent in the spring of 2024. The poll, conducted by the Speaking with American Men (SAM) project and shared with Puck, also found that his general favorability rating is at just 36 percent.

John Della Volpe, who surveyed 42,111 men ages 16-29 for the poll, told Puck that Trump’s first year in office eroded trust in his ability to govern.

“The big picture is that Trump was getting the benefit of the doubt in the first 100 days of his term,” Della Volpe told Puck. “Now, they are reflecting on those policies several months later and seeing no significant improvement. And they’re saying that their situation is no better. In many cases, it’s worse.”

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The SAM study also found that 78 percent of men think that avoiding “unnecessary wars and conflicts” should be a top priority for the president. It also found that men trust Democrats to win wars more than Republicans by a 5 percent majority.

Weeks after the survey was conducted from October 28 to November 26, Trump sent U.S. troops to capture deposed Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro in the early hours of Saturday morning.

More recently, Trump has already started threatening to seize Greenland using military force, despite it being associated with a key U.S. ally, Denmark.

Adam Pennings, the executive director of Republican-affiliated group Run GenZ, told The Hill that “a lot of young people” feel frustrated after Trump announced plans to influence Venezuelan politics, after campaigning on an America First message.

“Why are we not focusing on the people in Pennsylvania?” Pennings said. “Why are we not focusing on the people in Ohio or California or wherever, right?

“Why are we even looking at Venezuela?”

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With day-to-day costs continuing to rise, despite Trump claiming his tariff policy was making the country richer, pollsters say the number of young men supporting Trump could dwindle even further.

“If you’re 29 and you’re paying out the nose for health care, and you can’t own your own home and groceries are killing you, you don’t really care about the conversations about tariffs. That’s not where you’re living. You’re living at, ‘Hey, I need the price of eggs to drop,’” Brett Loyd, a Republican pollster, told The Hill.

In the 2024 election, Trump made unprecedented gains with young voters for a Republican candidate. While previously siding with President Joe Biden by 25 points in 2020, young voters cast their ballot for Kamala Harris by a slim 4-point majority in 2024, according to a Tufts University poll.

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The grim polling for Republicans comes after the Democratic Party enjoyed the beginnings of a blue wave in 2025, which saw Zohran Mamdani win the New York City mayoralty and two candidates sweep gubernatorial races.

However, Democratic strategists have said that the party cannot rely on those huge victories or a growing sense of frustration towards Trump’s administration.

Kaivan Shroff, a member of Gen-Z group Dream for America, told The Hill that “short-term feelings about the economy” may be only a temporary pull for voters to abandon Trump.

“At the same time, is that a long-term strategy for 2028 and beyond? No,” Shroff said. “Trump failing is not enough.”