Overview
- CNN data analyst Harry Enten reported that President Donald Trump’s net approval among 18-to-24-year-olds fell from roughly 43 percent in 2024 to about 15 percent in 2026, a drop Enten described as a 28-point shift.
- Enten and reporting link the reversal to young voters’ disillusionment over healthcare, rising living costs and the Iran war, and to perceptions that the administration’s immigration crackdown was too harsh.
- President Trump has acknowledged in post-midterm remarks that his immigration approach may have seemed "too tough" and could have driven voters away.
- Record turnout by younger voters, driven by that frustration, is credited as a major factor in Democratic gains in the midterms, offsetting earlier Republican inroads with parts of the youth electorate.
- The 28-point figure is an analyst interpretation reported in The Independent rather than a single official measure, and Tufts University’s CIRCLE research corroborates the broader trend of youth shifts between 2020 and 2024, so the numbers should be read as an interpretive synthesis of available data.