Why Gen Z Men Are Rethinking Their 2024 Trump Vote | WSJ

- So you guys are moving more towards the left side since Trump? - I don't endorse the left, but I don't think we're getting anywhere where the right is right now. - Seeing the Trump administration and all the harm it's done, and the irreparable damage, I'm willing to shake hands with a Democrat. - Young men played a critical role in helping elect President Trump to a second term. - He knew the youth vote. - A year ago, we sat down with a group of them to get a sense of how they were feeling about his first six months in office. But now Trump's support has plummeted both overall and among young men. So we asked the group we spoke with last year to come back and tell us how they're feeling today. Four of them joined us. Hi, guys. It's good to see you again. We are now a year and a half, a little over a year and a half into Trump's second term in office. So we wanted to check back in. Let's just start with some of those hand raising statements. I am happy with Trump's second term in office. So just Moses. Okay, so Michael, you came on late. Let's go around the room and just say in a few words why you first voted for Trump and if he has met those promises. - The main reason I voted for Trump is because I really liked his administration during his first term and I wanted to see a repeat of that. That idealism is what carried me to vote for him for a second time. - What do you think of how he's done so far? - I think it's been very disappointing, very jarring. If I had known the information that I know now six months ago, I would've definitely would've changed a lot of things I would've done in terms of voting patterns. - Would you have voted for him? - No, no. - Okay. Moses. - I voted for him because the Democrats, they didn't really have a platform. So Trump was kind of just the last resort. I don't think that the Democrats would've done better. So no, ultimately I don't think I would've changed my vote. - Michael, with your hesitant hand why'd you vote for Trump and has he met those promises? - During his first term, like I wanted to see kind of a repeat of that. And also, I mean, realistically for what the Democratic Party was putting up on the other side, it was kind of a no-brainer. - All right. Jayden, how about you? - I voted for Trump because of his original ideals in 2016 and in hopes that he would also carry that on in with his second term, because that resonated a lot with me as a young voter. - Has he stuck to those ideals? - No, he has not. I feel like he hasn't carried through with his original ideals whatsoever. He's made some steps towards them, but he has not achieved anything that he promised us. - Do you regret your vote? - I don't regret my vote, no. - Let's start off with the ongoing conflict with Iran. Moses, here's a statement you made last year after the US conducted targeted strikes against Iran. - Israel and US relations have always been really strong. They've been one of our closest allies. We've always been one of their closest allies. I feel like to not take action would've just been kind of leave them hanging. - So this sentiment about one targeted strike was widely shared. We are now months into a war with Iran with no end in sight. How do you guys feel about it? - I don't think it was unreasonable for Israel seeing that as an existential threat to preemptively strike it, which brings us in as their allies, just trying to keep the world safe and make sure nuclear weapons don't fall into the hands of governments that can't always be trusted to do the most rational course of action. - So we've known that North Korea has also been developing nuclear weapons much longer than Iran. Why didn't we attack North Korea instead? Why are we attacking a new emerging power with nuclear weapons that are then a pre-established threat? - Can I jump in really quick and just say a huge part of Trump's second campaign, and what we saw a lot of young people say they were very supportive of was his promise for obviously America first, that's been his long promise, but to get the US out of wars. Do you wanna be involved in a war? - I feel like we either need to just go in or we just need to stop. I didn't agree at all with this war, and I don't think it should have happened. - Do you feel like the president has clearly laid out why we are in this war? - Am I happy? No. But do I understand it? Yes. It's to prevent a nuclear weapon in the hands of extremists. That's the main objective. Has he done a good job laying out for the American people? "Hey, this is the timeline. This is what we're trying to do." No. - It's another war for mass weapons, mass destruction weapons. - Right, right. - I mean, do we not learn our lesson from what Bush did in Iraq and we found that, oh, surprise, surprise, there are no weapons of mass destruction. Are we gonna repeat the same mistakes that the Bush administration did and just go it under a different presidency? - Israel in particular is the ally, the closest to the US in this war. How do you guys feel about that alliance? - I mean, they've had to worry about their existence ever since the nation was created. - I feel like that they kind of lost that though after Gaza. And it's like you're defending yourself, but you're doing this to this neighboring location. I feel like that term comes to bring questions into what's going on now. - In Gaza, you felt like they were too aggressive? - Yeah, 'cause they can't be like, "Oh yeah, we are being attacked. We are the victims." But then they're starving people over there and bombing them. - So do you support how closely the US is aligned with Israel anymore? - I don't really see the benefits. A lot of the wars that we've done have been to help protect them. - They have a right to defend themselves after what happened in October, right? We can debate obviously the logistics of that, what they've done to civilians, what they've done to children. I think my problem is that we give all this support. I mean, realistically, we don't have a grasp on them. They still do as they please, and we're almost forced to comply. - I agree wholeheartedly. It shouldn't be unconditional. - I couldn't have said it better than myself. I think we just need to make them more accountable. - So let's talk about some of what's happening at home. Trump promised to really focus on the border and deporting, he said, a large number of criminals. That was something that for most of you is really important. Jayden, before you jump in, I actually wanna play a clip from you. - Immigration, he's going to be like, "Bam, bam, bam." I feel like we're getting just enough to be satisfied. - Do you still feel that way? Trump has become a lot more aggressive in his crackdown. - Yes, I still feel like it's going a little slow. So those ICE raids that are happening, like the ones I believe earlier in the years in Minnesota, right? - They've been all around the country, but there were actually two cases. There were two deaths in Minnesota. - Which is a tragedy. I just want illegal immigrants to be out of the country. I like seeing a more engaged ICE raids, but not exactly with the death. - Moses and Jathan, how do you guys feel about what's been going on with immigration and border enforcement? - We had the complete cancellation of over 200,000 visas of asylum seekers, and even the whole H-1B visa process and all, and him completely ignoring legal immigration to focus on these ICE raids and completely trying to shift the whole aspect of immigration to illegal immigration, that's something I find frustrating. - In terms of illegal immigration, we're barely hitting Obama numbers and yet we're getting worse publicity out of it. Like what are we doing? Obviously all these big incidents of them getting a bit too aggressive with people on the warrants, even when it is the targets and people interfering. I wish it was better, but I can't really say how that would look. - I'm a fan of immigration. It helps economic growth. Although we wanna see more of a push from legal immigration, I think that we still need to have our set quotas. - How do you feel Republicans are doing in Congress? Are you gonna vote for Republicans in the midterms? - I feel like I have to because the ideals of what America should be with the Democratic Party has completely changed. It's not the same Democratic Party as it was 20 years ago, 25 years ago. What you see nowadays, and it's not even... I don't even wanna call them Democrats, they're really liberals, far leftists, that they just have so much hatred for our country. - Yeah, like you're saying, it's really hard to, when it comes to the ballot, to go with Democrats 'cause like you said, they hate America, they wanna completely reforge a new thing, rising from the ashes. And I'm over here like, I think there is some good. I don't think we need to completely toss the system away and build a new one of its ashes. I think there's still a lot of good here that we can salvage. - Jathan, you say you regret voting for Trump. - Yes. - Would you consider voting for Democrats in the midterm elections? - Yes. The way I see the Republican Party going is not the Republican Party I grew up with. It has been completely MAGA. MAGA amplifies the core values of state rights, letting the people decide for what they want has been overtaken by whatever Trump's agenda is. And I'm seeing candidates like Zohran Mamdani, the new Michigan Senate candidate. These are the candidates that I want to represent America, and I'm willing to compromise my Republican values and say, "Look, I don't care if you're Democrat or Republican. I have a vision for America. We share the same visions. Let's cross these bipartisan divisions and work together to rebuild our system." - I mean, those are two of the most progressive candidates. Mamdani is literally a Democratic socialist. Abdul El-Sayed is not, but he is progressive. So you're saying you're done with Republicans, you're willing to go basically all the way to the left? - What I'm saying is going to be controversial. Those ideas of what those stand for, those are what Republican values should be. They're about giving us an economy that supports the working people and not for the establishment. That is what the Republican Party for me is about. At the end of the day, people wanna vote for what they resonate with. - I honestly have to agree with Jathan a little bit. I'm not gonna vote Republican for this upcoming one. I don't think I'm gonna vote at all, actually. I don't think there's ever gonna be another Republican leader that's as extreme as Trump. - So you guys are moving more towards the left side since Trump, more towards... - I don't endorse the left, but I don't think we're getting anywhere where the right is right now. - Can we just go around really quickly and can you say who you'd like to see run for president and at this point, Republican or Democrat? Who excites you? - We're just gonna have to see who nominees are for 2028 for the president, because right now I can't exactly see who that leader might be. - So you want someone more right-leaning? - Yeah, I want someone who will get more things done. - I mean, we got a few good options. You got a Marco Rubio, Ron DeSantis, JD Vance, but I kind of, as the others are saying, I kinda don't wanna keep riding the MAGA train. - How about you, Michael? - Yeah, so I don't think any of the candidates are gonna be as extreme as I want them to be. The only one who kinda interests me is Marco Rubio. - You have basically answered this, Jathan, but just to be clear, you're no longer behind Trump. You've gone the complete other direction. Are you surprised that things sort of moved so far so fast? - Before, I wouldn't expect me to be making a statement when we talked earlier, like a year ago with Trump, but seeing that the Trump administration and all the harm it's done and the irreparable damage, I'm willing to shake hands with a Democrat. I particularly would like to advocate for Gavin Newsom, Shapiro, who is my governor right now, even Jon Ossoff. These are candidates that I see great promising. I wish the Republican Party had candidates like them. - All right, you guys, I'm gonna wrap us on that, and you guys have been so generous with your time. It's fun to talk to you. It was great to catch up. So thank you all.