Young conservative voters threaten to collapse Trump’s fragile MAGA coalition

When Donald Trump narrowly won the 2024 presidential election, one of the things that greatly frustrated Democratic Party insiders was the gains he made among Generation Z voters (especially young men). Democrats were hoping that Gen-Z would be even more favorable to their party than Millennials; instead, Trump made significant gains among voters in their twenties. But according to Salon's Heather Digby Parton, Trump's war against Iran is putting those gains at risk.

Parton, in Salon, describes a growing generation gap within MAGA — one that finds Gen-Z being especially critical of the Iran war.

"Most Democrats never really bought his 'I'm ending the forever wars' schtick," Parton argues. "But, interestingly enough, Republicans apparently did — the party that has always been the first to wave the flag and chant 'no glory like old glory.' Today, most of them are fully bought into the Trump myth. The older ones, I suspect, are just going along with him for the ride in Iran; perhaps they have found ways to excuse the president's newfound love for 'warfighting,' or maybe their natural bloodlust has been reawakened after having gone dormant from Trump fever."

The Salon reporter continues, "But younger members of the president's MAGA coalition aren’t buying it. Politico has reported that Turning Point USA chapters in battleground states are seeing a lot of dissension and dismay among Trump's Gen-Z supporters who believed his 'no new wars' pledge. In fact, it was one of the main reasons they voted for him."

During the 2024 election, one of the MAGA talking points against Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris was that she was a hawk who would get the United States into a prolonged war — perhaps in Ukraine. Then-President Joe Biden was a strong supporter of military aid to Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of the country, although Biden and then-Vice President Harris adamantly said there would be no American boots on the ground in that conflict.

Regardless, the Trump campaign's anti-war messaging resonated with many of the Gen-Z voters who ultimately rejected Harris.

"According to a Politico/Public First poll," Parton observes, "just 28 percent of Trump voters aged 18 to 34 support the Iran war. That number is very bad news for Republicans; it indicates that the GOP's newest voters are not going to go along with the party's demands for more military spending and foreign military adventurism. And it may even mean that there is an emerging anti-war consensus forming across party lines, which would be a massive change in American politics. Trump never meant what he said about being an isolationist, and he certainly hasn't ended all the wars he claims to have resolved."

Parton continues, "Instead, he has been starting new ones — and is apparently planning to start others. But if he managed to convince young conservative Republicans that being anti-war is the right thing, and if they continue to believe that and refuse to go along with his militarism, Donald Trump may have just done something truly good for our country and its future without even realizing it."

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