CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten says young men who helped elect President Donald Trump in 2024 have shifted sharply against him, with net approval down by dozens of points and reversals on foreign policy and the economy—raising alarms for Republican candida
On Sunday, Harry Enten didn’t treat the shift in young men’s views toward President Donald Trump as a gradual wobble. He described it as a fast, dramatic turn.
Enten, CNN’s chief data analyst, pointed to young men as the group Trump relied on to win in 2024. “He was the first Republican nominee to win young men this entire century,” he said. “But now it’s a different tune.” Then came the numbers he says capture the change: his net approval rating is now 55 percentage points underwater with young men who helped propel him to the White House. based on Enten’s average of current polls.
Enten called the swing a “switcheroo,” and he put a timeline behind it: “That’s 56 points — 56 points in just a year and a half!”
When he moved from overall approval to specific issue trust, the reversals kept stacking up. In 2024, Enten said, young men trusted Trump on foreign policy over then-Vice President Kamala Harris by 9 percentage points. Now, his approval rating among the same group is 54 percentage points underwater — a reversal of 63 points. He added, “Jacques Cousteau never got that low, my friends,” before driving home the depth of the drop.
The economy showed what Enten described as an even steeper reversal. He said Trump’s net approval among young men moved from +7 to -59 — a reversal of 66 points. Enten said he found himself laughing at how abrupt the turn was: “I’m laughing because the turn is so absurd.”
To Enten, the political consequence isn’t just about public sentiment. “All this could spell doom for the GOP in this year’s midterm elections,” he said.
He argued that while Trump himself is not on the ballot this fall, the fallout reaches congressional Republicans. “Trump is not on the ballot this fall. but it all flows downhill to those members of Congress. those Republican members of Congress. ” he said. “If they think they’re going to escape the wrath of young men. and the regret that they have for voting for Donald Trump. well. they got another thing coming. mister.”.
He also laid out how young men’s views could translate into midterm numbers. Enten said men under 30 voted for Democrats in Congress in 2024 by a margin of +3. Today, he said, midterm polls show Democrats up by 28 percentage points among young men.
Enten ended the segment by pointing viewers to the full video of his analysis, embedding it for those who wanted to watch the remarks in full.
Harry Enten young men Trump approval midterm elections GOP foreign policy economy U.S. politics