How Trump Won the Votes of Young Men - CIVITAS-STL

How Trump Won the Votes of Young Men

This is an article from the Civitas Examiner and was written by one of our students, FIRST NAME. The opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of Civitas other than respect for the value of open dialogue. To read more Civitas Examiner stories or to submit your own, click here.

The 2024 presidential election shook up the USA like no election before. Shockingly, Donald Trump, the former president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, won the election with a popular vote of 50.0% and the electoral vote of 312. This victory makes Trump the second president who will serve his two terms non-consecutively, the first being Grover Cleveland. But since Trump was announced as the winner, many have asked a question: How did Trump get those votes?

Soon enough, information came out that in this specific election, the group that allowed Trump to win were not people who voted for third-party candidates like Kennedy, Stein, or Oliver, and not even Muslim voters in Michigan who were disenfranchised with Harris due to her views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No, the group that helped Trump win was young men aged 30. But you might ask a question: How did Trump manage to win the votes of such voters?  As usual, it isn’t an easy question to answer, but the main reasons are related to the economy, job opportunities, and Trump’s successful promotion through popular media.

First, we need to understand who the group we are talking about are. Recent polls showed that young men of age 30 are some of the most undecided voters in America, and to win an election in a swing state, the candidate must somehow have this specific group to vote for him. One such issue facing these men was the economy and job opportunities. Many of them saw Trump as a better choice, as he made huge promises regarding new jobs, which especially drew in Latino and Black men, as both communities have had historical problems with lacking employment and living in poverty.

Additionally, his promises of price cuts and tax relief provided him extra support from these communities. Most importantly, the reason Trump won the hearts and votes of these men was simple: he was successful in marketing his campaign. For example, Trump purposefully served fries at McDonald’s to appeal to the working class. In another infamous example, after Biden called Trump supporters “garbage,” Trump drove in a garbage truck with his campaign on the truck side. We must admit that Trump knows how to use a specific situation in his favor, which is why Trump did these two weird stunts.

Finally, the action that helped Trump win young men’s votes was brilliant and simple: Trump went to some popular talk shows. He understood that many young men watch these programs, so his campaign decided that the best way to win was to have Trump appear on these shows. The best example was when he went to Joe Rogan for an interview. Now, the interview contained a bunch of conspiracy theories, including the classical promotion of a false claim that the Democrats stole the 2020 election from him. However, Trump still managed to attract these young voters for a simple reason: many people watch Joe Rogan; it is simply one of the most popular podcasts. By going to the podcast, former president Trump successfully promoted himself by getting interviewed by a famous podcaster and successfully spreading his campaign proposals to the audience, most of whom are young men.

In conclusion, the way Trump won the votes of 30-year-old men, the most undecided voters in this election, is quite simple: he exploited cases like that of McDonald’s and the garbage truck in his favor, as well as Trump being able to promote himself by going onto popular podcasts and having his campaigns economic policies appeal more to Hispanics and African-Americans, both groups who have had problems with poverty. Honestly, the way Trump won the votes was simple and genius.