A new YouGov survey suggested that a growing number of young Americans are rallying behind President Donald Trump’s oldest son as a dark horse candidate in the 2028 presidential election.
The YouGov poll found strong support for Donald Trump Jr. among the 18-to-29 and 30-to-44-year-old demographics, particularly the former.
Just over a quarter of Republicans and right-leaning independents under age 30 said Trump Jr. was their “ideal” choice for the 2028 GOP nomination—a 10-point increase from April. And a majority of voters aged 18 to 29 (53%) and 30 to 44 (55%) said they would consider voting for him in the next Republican presidential primary, YouGov’s survey found.
Despite his upswing with younger voters, Trump Jr. still lags well behind Vice President JD Vance’s level of overall support.
Vance was the runaway favorite among all demographics with 42% of Republicans and right-leaning independents saying he is the best candidate for 2028. Trump Jr. ran a distant second at 13%, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (7%) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (5%), according to YouGov.
However, Vance trailed Trump Jr. by three points with voters aged 18 to 29. That marked a significant swing from April’s survey, which showed that 52% of under-30 voters viewed Vance as the GOP’s top 2028 candidate compared to 18% for Trump Jr.
Trump Jr., the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, has never held public office. But he has acted as a trusted confidant and advisor to his father and served as honorary chair of Trump’s presidential transition team following the 2024 election.
Trump Jr. also played a prominent role in the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Following Joe Biden’s win, Trump Jr. called for “total war” and discussed ways to subvert the Electoral College process in text messages sent to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
According to transcripts released by the House Jan. 6 committee, Trump Jr. said that he was not the original author of the texts and did not remember who sent them.
With the 2028 Republican presidential primaries still more than two years away, Trump Jr. has not indicated whether he intends to launch a presidential campaign.
“I don’t know, maybe one day, you know — that calling is there,” Trump Jr. said in May of a future presidential run. “I think my father has truly changed the Republican Party. I think it’s the America First party now, the MAGA party, however you want to look at it.”
YouGov survey methodology:The poll was conducted among 2,172 U.S. adult citizens from Nov. 7-9, 2025. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 2.8%.
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