U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval rating is in a “black hole” with young people, a data analyst has said.
Harry Enten, CNN’s chief data analyst said Trump’s approval rating had declined by 56 points since February and that swings like this were rare in politics.
Newsweek reached out to to the White House by email to comment on this story outside of normal business hours.
Why It Matters
Young people, traditionally Democratic, proved integral to Trump’s success in the 2024 presidential election.
According to AP VoteCast, the proportion of voters ages 18 to 29 who supported the Democratic presidential candidate decreased from 61 percent in the 2020 presidential election to 51 percent in 2024.
For the GOP to do well in the November 2026 midterms, this trend must continue and if it doesn’t, Democrats could pick up key seats and hammer the GOP’s majority in the House of Representatives, affecting Trump’s ability to push through his agenda.
What To Know
Speaking on CNN, Enten said while Trump had initially performed well with young voters, his approval rating had plummeted. Citing CBS News/YouGov polling, he said Trump’s approval rating among adults aged 18 to 29 had declined from +10 percentage points in February, to -46 points in December.
“This isn’t falling into the water, this isn’t going underseas, this is going into a deep, dark black hole,” Enten said.
He added: “You rarely, rarely ever see swings like this.”
Enten said voters had turned against Trump because of the economy, something which is a key concern for American voters. The president pledged to bring down inflation on the campaign trail, but since taking office, the public has taken umbrage with some of Trump’s economic policies, including his implementation of tariffs on the U.S.’s trading partners.
A Fox News poll found in November that 76 percent of voters view the economy negatively. This makes Trump less popular on the economy than former President Joe Biden. At the end of his presidency in 2024, Fox News polling showed that 70 percent of people had a negative view of the economy.
Calvin Jillson, a politics professor at Southern Methodist University in Texas told Newsweek: “Trump won in 2024 because he was seen as better on the economy than Biden or Harris. Young people, especially young men, as well as Hispanics and Black men, expected employment, income, and benefits to improve under Trump and they have not. In fact, jobs are tight, especially for new college graduates, and ‘affordability’ is the cudgel that Democrats will use to pound Republicans until Election Day 2026.”
Despite the negative findings, recent polling by The Economist/YouGov shows that while it was still underwater, Trump’s net approval among adults aged 18 to 29 increased from -55 percentage points in October to -34 points in November.
Meanwhile, their polling shows that Trump’s net approval rating among millennial voters, roughly those born from 1981 to 1996, has increased from -19 percentage points in September to -16 points in December.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump said on Truth Social earlier in November: “So many Fake Polls are being shown by the Radical Left Media, all slanted heavily toward Democrats and Far Left Wingers…Fake News will never change, they are evil and corrupt but, as I look around my beautiful surroundings, I say to myself, ‘Oh, look, I’m sitting in the Oval Office!'”
What Happens Next
As his presidency continues, Trump’s approval rating among all groups including young people will likely fluctuate.
The midterm elections take place in November 2026.
