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US Election: Why Young Men Supported Donald Trump

Published

1 year ago

November 8, 2024

Focusing her campaign on abortion rights, Kamala Harris believed she had found a winning strategy to attract women voters.

But it was Donald Trump who claimed victory, increasing his support among American men — particularly young men.

While young people generally tend to lean more liberal, Trump’s presidential campaign effectively capitalised on youth masculinity, tapping into interests such as combat sports and cryptocurrency, and appearing on male-dominated podcasts.

“If you are a man in this country and you don’t vote for Donald Trump, you’re not a man,” said Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist focused on the youth vote.

Trump won the presidency with 54 per cent of men voting Republican, a slight increase from the 51 percent who supported him in 2020, according to exit polling by NBC.

However, what was particularly notable was the support from younger voters aged 18–29, with 49 percent of young men voting for Trump — challenging previous assumptions that young people generally lean left.

As Elon Musk — tech entrepreneur, billionaire, and major Trump supporter — put it on Election Day: “the cavalry has arrived.”

Trump’s gains reflect a growing gender divide among young voters: women under 29 overwhelmingly favoured Harris, with a 61-37 split over Trump.

“There is a lot of latent sexism in the US electorate, both among men and women,” Tammy Vigil, an associate professor of media science at Boston University, told AFP. “Trump’s campaign allowed people to indulge their worst impulses and embrace divisiveness of many kinds.”

‘Tough’ Trump Seen as a ‘Leader’

Spencer Thomas, a Harris supporter, noted that many of his peers who voted for Trump were focused on the economy.

“They were more concerned with economic policies and similar issues than abortion rights,” said the Howard University student, attending a historically Black college in Washington.

The macho tone of Trump’s campaign — rejecting political correctness, “wokeness,” and other forms of liberal caution — attracted many Black men, despite the campaign’s overt racism at times.

Among Black men under 45, roughly three in ten voted for Trump — double the rate from 2020, further eroding the Democrats’ traditional base.

As Democrats analyse what went wrong, there will be no simple explanation.

But “Black and Latino men might overlook the racism of the Trump campaign because Trump appealed to their sense of machismo,” Vigil suggested.

Trump’s appearance on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, with an audience that skews young and male, “was aimed at motivating young men to turn out,” said Kathleen Dolan, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

“His overall display of masculinity was designed to appeal to his base — men and women who like him because they see him as ‘tough’ and a ‘leader,’ and who clearly aren’t offended by his comments,” she told AFP.
Whatever Trump’s unique appeal was, it resonated with voters.

According to exit polling from Edison Research, some 54 per cent of Latino men voted for Trump on Tuesday — an extraordinary 18-point gain for Republicans compared to 2020.

AFP

Related Topics:#Trump Donald Trump US election

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FULL LIST: US To Review Green Cards From 19 ‘Countries Of Concern’ After Washington Shooting

Published

8 hours ago

November 29, 2025

Editor

The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it will review the immigration status of all permanent residents, or “Green Card” holders, from Afghanistan and 18 other countries following the attack on National Guard troops in Washington, D.C.

U.S. officials identified the suspect in Wednesday’s shooting as a 29-year-old Afghan national who previously worked alongside American forces in Afghanistan.

The individual was granted asylum earlier this year, not permanent residency, according to AfghanEvac, an organisation that assists Afghans resettled in the United States after the Taliban takeover in 2021.

“I have directed a full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” said Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), on X.

The review follows a June executive order from President Trump classifying 19 countries as “of Identified Concern.”

The order banned entry for nearly all nationals from 12 countries, including Afghanistan. The full list of these countries is:

Afghanistan

Myanmar

Chad

Congo-Brazzaville

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Haiti

Iran

Libya

Somalia

Sudan

Yemen

A partial travel ban applies to seven additional countries, though some temporary work visas remain allowed: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

Headline

Romanian Defence Minister Quits After Admitting Error In Academic Record

Published

8 hours ago

November 29, 2025

Editor

Romania’s defence minister resigned on Friday after saying he made a “mistake” on his CV about his university education, as controversy swirled over alleged lies on his resume.

Ionut Mosteanu – who has admitted to writing on his CV that he graduated from a university he never attended – said he did not want the row “to distract” the NATO member at a time when it and Europe are “under attack from Russia”.

Romania has repeatedly seen drone fragments fall on its soil since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and reported a number of drone incursions.

On Tuesday, a drone crashed in eastern Romania, which borders Ukraine.

Romania has also accused Moscow of “hybrid attacks”, including meddling in presidential elections last year that were subsequently annulled.

“Today, I resigned from my position as minister of national defence,” Mosteanu said in a Facebook post, adding he wanted the country to be focused on its “difficult mission”.

“Romania and Europe are under attack from Russia. Our national security must be defended at all costs,” he added.

Mosteanu had come under pressure after a media investigation published on Thursday revealed that he wrote in a CV that he graduated from a university which he did not actually attend.

That same day he apologised for what he called “a mistake”.

“In a CV I quickly put together in 2016 using a template I found online, there is a mistake that I admit embarrasses me. I didn’t pay much attention to these details at the time,” he said on Facebook.

Mosteanu was appointed defence minister in June of this year, when a new pro-European government was formed after months of political turmoil.

Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said in a press release that he would propose economy and tourism minister Radu Miruta take over the defence portfolio in the interim.

AFP

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Russia Insists Ukraine Must Cede Land Or Face Continued Military Push

Published

2 days ago

November 27, 2025

Editor

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he would end his Ukraine offensive if Kyiv withdrew from territory Moscow claims at its own — otherwise his army would take it by force.

The Russian army has been slowly but steadily grinding through eastern Ukraine in costly battles against outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces.

Washington has meanwhile renewed its push to end the nearly four-year war, putting forward a surprise plan that it hopes to finalise through upcoming talks with Moscow and Kyiv.

“If Ukrainian forces leave the territories they hold, then we will stop combat operations,” Putin said during a visit to Kyrgyzstan. “If they don’t, then we will achieve it by military means.”

Russia controls around one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory. The issue of occupied land, which Kyiv has said it will never cede, is among the biggest stumbling blocks in the peace process.

Another important issue in the talks are Western security guarantees for Ukraine, which Kyiv says are needed to prevent Moscow from invading again in the future.

Washington’s original plan — drafted without input from Ukraine’s European allies — would have seen Kyiv withdraw from its eastern Donetsk region and the United States de facto recognise the Donetsk, Crimea and Lugansk regions as Russian.

The US pared back the original plan over the weekend following criticism from Kyiv and Europe, but has not yet released the new version.

Putin, who has seen the new plan, said it could be a negotiation starter.

“Overall, we agree that it could form the basis for future agreements,” he said of the latest draft, which the US is thought to have shortened to about 20 points.

US negotiator Steve Witkoff was expected in Moscow next week to discuss the revised document, Putin said.

US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is meanwhile due to visit Kyiv later this week, Ukraine’s top presidential aide Andriy Yermak said.

– ‘Little can be done’ –

In his remarks Thursday, Putin repeated the claim that Russia had encircled the Ukrainian army in Pokrovsk and Myrnograd in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region — the most fiercely embattled area and a key target for Moscow’s forces.

“Krasnoarmeysk and Dimitrov are completely surrounded,” he said, using the Russian names for the cities.

Moscow was also advancing in Vovchansk and Siversk, as well as approaching the important logistic hub of Guliaipole, he added.

The Russian offensive “is practically impossible to hold back, so there is little that can be done about it”, Putin said.

Ukraine has denied Pokrovsk and Myrnograd are encircled, insisting its forces continue to hold the enemy along the front line.

Putin also questioned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy and said signing any agreement with him would be legally “almost impossible” at the moment, a suggestion that has drawn groans from Kyiv and its allies.

According to data analysed by AFP from the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian forces have conquered an average of 467 square kilometres (180 square miles) each month in 2025 — a step up from 2024.

Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the worst armed conflict in Europe since World War II.

The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.