'I feel betrayed': Focus group of young Trump voters reveals deep regrets

After Donald Trump narrowly won the United States' 2024 presidential election, frustrated Democratic strategists spent months analyzing the gains he made among Latinos, tech bros, independents, swing voters, Generation Z and the Manosphere. Trump didn't win by much, defeating Democratic nominee Kamala Harris by roughly 1.5 percent in the national popular vote. But the fact that his appeal went beyond his hardcore MAGA base was a source of major frustration for the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Trump is now almost 14 months into his second presidency, and countless polls are showing him with weak approval ratings. While his diehard MAGA base still supports him enthusiastically, swing voters who were willing to give him a chance in 2024 are, according to polls, feeling disappointed.

In an article published by the Washington Post on March 16, reporters Dan Merica and Cat Zakrzewski describe a focus group in which young Trump voters shared their views on his second presidency. And the Gen-Z voters who now regret voting for him in 2024 laid out their frustrations.

"Many in the focus group said they believed Trump's pitch in 2024, helping catapult him back to the White House by drawing more support from young voters than any Republican presidential candidate in two decades," Merica and Zakrzewski report. "But with prices stubbornly high, a belief that Trump is overly focused on international conflict and concerns about how federal officials are implementing the president's immigration policy, they also said they are questioning why they voted in the first place."

The Post journalists continue, "The young voters' frustrations signal a broader vulnerability for Republicans with a key prong of the unique coalition that powered Trump’s political comeback. The focus group in North Carolina, polling and a growing chorus of criticism from the male influencers who endorsed Trump suggest the rightward shift among men in their late teens and 20s in 2024 may have been an isolated incident."

Joshua Byers, who is 26, told the Post, "I feel betrayed. I don't know why we are fighting (in Iran) if we have never been attacked. I just don't understand why…. I don't really want to vote anymore. I'm really starting to just think it just won't matter.… I don't want to feel responsible for taking a vote and feeling misled, or misjudged, or making a wrong move."

Lilly Burrow, a 23-year-old Charlotte resident and schoolteacher from who voted for Trump in 2020 and 2024, said of the economy and the war with Iran, "It does change how I feel about Trump. He said there would be no new wars, and he said that gas would be below $3 a gallon.… I am not happy with him right now."

Focus group participant Faith Peavey, who is 21, told the Post, "Did you mention that you were planning on attacking these countries. We are fighting the wrong battles."

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