Trump's Economic Picoes Favour AmericanMore
Young men are anxious about the future—they express fears about housing, frustration over grocery and fuel prices, and concerns about the general economic trajectory of the country. Many feel the economy was simply better under Trump.
Eighteen-year-old Caleb Boyt told The Epoch Times that Trump seems to offer the best economic future for him.
“Being a young man in America, I feel like [Trump] sets me up in the best possible way, whether that be me just entering the workforce or being able to afford things and save up my money better,” he said.
Experts told The Epoch Times that economics generally feel more pressing to men: Despite the broad social changes since the 20th century, many men still feel obligated to be the primary breadwinner and to provide for their spouses and children.
Women are also far more likely to go to college than men. Bullock noted that around 60 percent of new college enrollees today are women. Meanwhile, job prospects for men have dwindled with the mass departure of solid blue-collar employment to cheaper labor markets overseas.
“The success that a young man could have had a generation or two ago—completing high school, or maybe you drop out of high school, but you could get a pretty good paying job, go to work in a factory somewhere, and you [could] support a family,” Bullock said. “That scenario is less applicable today.”
The young women who spoke to The Epoch Times were far less likely to mention the economy as a leading issue, instead focusing on abortion or Trump’s personality.
Sarah Chamberlain, president and chief executive of The Republican Main Street Partnership, a moderate Republican political organization, focuses on trends among women.
She told The Epoch Times that many young women bank on being able to find a partner who can provide for them, while men generally prefer to be the main provider.
“I think women have the luxury to worry about other things,” Chamberlain said.
Thus, abortion and candidate personalities are more compelling and pressing issues for women, Chamberlain said.
Men, by contrast, tend to assume that they’ll be primarily responsible for providing for a wife and family, Chamberlain said, leading to increased economic pressure on them from a young age.
That aligns with what The Epoch Times observed: Young men consistently listed economic concerns as their biggest issue with few exceptions, regardless of which candidate they were backing. Some cited the ability to provide for a family in the future as a leading concern for them.
Nazir Mbami, a black voter who will turn 18 shortly before the election and plans on supporting Trump, told The Epoch Times during a Trump event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that the border and the economy were his top priorities.
“We are losing jobs, people like me, who are low socioeconomic [status]—people are losing jobs because they’re being filled by people that are ... not supposed to be here,” Mbami said, referencing the mass influx of illegal immigrants under the current administration.
Mbami particularly referenced the housing market, a leading concern among Gen Z voters on both sides of the political spectrum—as well as among those who spoke to The Epoch Times.
“That’s not very realistic, especially [for] entry-level,” he said.
Beside economics, the young men who spoke to The Epoch Times proposed additional reasons that Trump has such strong appeal among young men.
Many cited the influence of Trump’s masculine persona, referencing his reaction to getting shot in the ear during an attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. A famous photo from the shooting shows Trump, surrounded by Secret Service agents, pumping his fist into the air as blood streaked down the right side of his face.
The incident prompted Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX, Tesla, and social media platform X, to endorse Trump for president. Since then, Musk, who is popular with younger men, has worked toward getting Trump reelected.
Many young men have posted on social media comparisons of Trump to President Theodore Roosevelt, another commander-in-chief popular among men for his tough, masculine persona; Roosevelt once famously delivered a speech just after being shot in the chest, an attack he narrowly survived.
Liem Jurley, an 18-year-old studying business at Kennesaw State University, located just north of Atlanta, told The Epoch Times that Trump’s personality is a big draw for him.
When asked why he is backing Trump, Jurley responded simply, “Because he’s cool.” He said that he knows many men who feel the same.
“We’re the bros, and we’re all supporting Trump,” he said.
Luke Meadows, an 18-year-old studying accounting at Kennesaw State, also referenced Trump’s personality.
“Trump is probably more popular because he seems cooler [to young men],” Meadows said.
Trump’s personality seems to have the opposite effect on women. Many young women who spoke to The Epoch Times cited personality as a leading reason for their opposition to Trump.
“The personality that drives the men [toward Trump] is driving the women away,” Chamberlain said.
Others cited the influence of media and the internet, referencing figures such as Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan, and others who have a predominantly male audience online. These influencers are sometimes regarded as belonging to the “manosphere,” a sometimes-pejorative term used to describe online spaces and voices that appeal to men.
Still others cited men’s increased opposition to “woke” positions among the American left.
“I have definitely seen ... young men feeling increasingly alienated and attacked by Democrats and the left, [and] Kamala Harris in particular, but broadly the sort of woke movement on the American left in general,” Connor Alford, who teaches political science at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, told The Epoch Times.
In conjunction with their declining economic prospects, Alford posited that many men feel villainized by the left even as they face their own struggles—higher suicide rates, more dangerous occupations, and much higher rates of homelessness.
Brian Seitchik, a Republican strategist, told The Epoch Times that Democrats are “focused on issues that are just not as important to men.”
“The Democrats [have a] myopic focus on abortion as inflation runs rampant and we have open borders. It’s adversely impacting their support among young male voters,” he said.
Alex Cam, a 20-year-old student at Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania who is undecided, agreed.
“I think it just goes back to how abortion doesn’t pertain to men necessarily as much as it does to women,” Cam said, opining that Democrats are focusing on the issue to their own detriment.
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