If my recent conversations with young conservatives are any indication, MAGA is in trouble.
Over the past few months I’ve spoken with a number of young people, primarily young men, all of whom voted for Donald Trump in 2024. For some it was their first time voting in a presidential election. Although they all voted for Trump, they weren’t all the same.
Some were enthusiastic MAGA supporters; others simply wanted to keep Kamala out of office.
Some are political junkies; others barely keep up with what’s going on in DC.
Some identified strongly with the Republican Party; others consider themselves independent.
Regardless of their differences, they all had something in common: every single one of them was furious with Donald Trump. The Iran war, the coverup of the Epstein files, and especially his careless attitude toward the economy and rising inflation…they were all disgusted with Trump and many “were done” with the GOP. While some could articulate it better than others, they all associated much more with the “America First” wing of conservatism than the “MAGA” wing (I’ll explain this split more in a moment).
The same could not be said of Trump voters my age and older. Most are still firmly in the MAGA camp, and still support Trump and his policies.
The recent defeat of congressman Thomas Massie in his Republican primary reveals a similar divide. Massie was the “America First” candidate, and his opponent, Ed Gallrein, was the Trump-supported MAGA pick. While Gallrein won with 55% of the total vote, exit polls show that Massie won every age group except the 65+ demographic, where he lost overwhelmingly (only 35% of that vote). The younger the age group, the more it voted for Massie—the 18-29 age demographic voted a resounding 78.5% in his favor. Clearly there’s a divide in the GOP, and it breaks down by age.
Regardless of their differences, they all had something in common: every single one of them was furious with Donald Trump.Tweet ThisHow can there be a split between MAGA and America First? Doesn’t making America great again mean putting America first? According to America Firsters, apparently not, based on the actions of the Trump Administration in his first 16 months in office. Those who identify with America First (either openly or implicitly) question the president’s decision to go to war with Iran; many of those I spoke with believe the conflict to be more in Israel’s interests than America’s (a nickname for MAGA among many young conservatives is “MIGA”—Make Israel Great Again). Further, they are frustrated with the mixed messages surrounding the release of the Epstein files—Trump and MAGA first supported the disclosure, but now downplay it, even attacking those (like Massie) who want the files fully released.
What most infuriates the young people I spoke with is the economy. They feel increasingly left out, with no way to achieve even their parents’ standard of living. They don’t care about the geopolitics of Iran and Israel and the Middle East as much as they care about finding a way to buy a modest house and afford their grocery and gas bills. And they (rightly) place many of those rising prices at the feet of what’s going on in Iran. Their experience and their opinions about it are diametrically opposed to the attitude of President Trump, who when asked about the economic impact of the Iran War stated, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”
Well, Trump may not care, and by extension MAGA may not care, but young people care very much.
What most infuriates the young people I spoke with is the economy. They feel increasingly left out, with no way to achieve even their parents’ standard of living.Tweet ThisThe economic disconnect between old and young (and therefore between MAGA and America First) is particularly clear in how each group views the role of the stock market in our economy. Trump has always interpreted a rising stock market as evidence of a strong economy. Many of his older supporters feel the same way. But that’s not the perspective of young people: they see it as more evidence of being left behind.
And these young people are right. Consider the S&P 500, a stock market index that tracks the performance of 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States. Many consider it a benchmark of the US economy, reading its rise as an automatic positive indicator of the overall health of our economy. However, as every young person knows, wages are not keeping pace with that inflating stock market.
In 1960, a person could buy 96 shares of the S&P 500 with a median household income. In 1990, he could buy 89 shares. In 2010, only 43 shares. How many shares could one buy today with the median household income? Only 16. Why would a young person be excited by the stock market rising when he knows that his income won’t keep up, leaving him more and more out of luck?
Why would a young person be excited by the stock market rising when he knows that his income won’t keep up, leaving him more and more out of luck?Tweet ThisIf the MAGA movement wants to live past Trump, it needs to address the demographic split, and so far it’s not doing a good job. Any criticism of MAGA is most often met with insults. Any questioning of the U.S. role in the Middle East is met with screams of “antisemite!” And any complaints about the economy are met with questions about the critic’s patriotism. None of these responses will bring young people back into the MAGA fold.
A perfect example of MAGA’s inability to reach young people is how it reacts to Nick Fuentes, a leading figure of the America First movement. Although I identify more with America First than MAGA, I’m no fan of Fuentes. Yet he resonates with young people for a reason, and just calling him a racist or antisemite—or thinking everyone sympathetic to the America First cause is identical to Fuentes and also therefore a racist or antisemite—only alienates MAGA even further from a generation that’s beyond weary of namecalling.
I grew up in an era where even the slightest accusation of being a racist or antisemite was political death. Too many MAGA supporters are under the illusion that we still live in that era, so they believe just branding Fuentes—as well as Tucker Carlson, Candice Owens, Dave Smith, Megyn Kelly, and other America First proponents—with those terms will make them go away. Hey, it worked in the 90’s. But now being branded an antisemite by some MAGA boomer is practically a badge of honor. Not because young people are actually antisemitic (only a small minority are), but because they realize that their legitimate critiques are hitting home and there’s no defense against them other than name-calling. Young people are tired of conservative critics being demonized by Trump and his MAGA lieutenants while evidence piles up that many of the criticisms being lobbed have real weight.
A final note for my MAGA readers: if your first reaction to this piece is to be upset at me or at other America Firsters, then you don’t get my point. The purpose of this article is not to criticize MAGA policies (I’ve done that elsewhere); it’s intended as a wake-up call. If you want MAGA to avoid its coming demographic collapse, you need to take the concerns of young people more seriously. Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Ben Shapiro, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and other MAGA mouthpieces are not doing you any favors. Instead of just insulting young conservatives or their leaders, perhaps consider actually listening to them, recognizing that perhaps their desire to put America first is the best way to make America great again.
You may well be right about young people’s perspectives on MAGA. I’m not a young person and I fall into the “support” camp. Trump has a very bold leadership style – he tries to do big things – and has the uncanny ability to not care about criticisms against him (or even assassination attempts). The term “TDS” comes around a lot because people dislike Trump personally, his brash and sometimes insulting style, so they reflexively reject ANYTHING that he does. The man could cure cancer and people would find a way to be angry about it.
People like Nick Fuentes and to a lesser degree lately Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, even Megyn Kelly, who I like, get called “anti-semites” because they espouse things that seem genuinely anti-semitic. When you say some version of “[fill in the blank] is controlled by the Jews,” that’s not “a legitimate criticism of Israel,” it’s naked anti-semitism and critics are correct to call it out. They are not saying Israel can do no wrong, as you seem to be suggesting. They are saying Israel is a staunch ally of the United States, the lone Judeo-Christian democracy in the Middle East and the target of a century of hatred and violence by seemingly just about everyone, and they deserve our support. To the point of your article, do young people get that? Probably not. October 7th should have opened their eyes to it but the rest of us have seen this our entire lives.
We’ve also seen 50 years of chaos and violence brought about by Iran so we are nervously optimistic when Trump leads us into action there in an effort to clean up the mess that his predecessors left behind. Completely fair to criticize these actions; also completely fair to support them.
You admit you’re not a young person but you seem to think you speak for them when you say things like, “they realize that their legitimate critiques are hitting home and there’s no defense against them other than name-calling,” which is simply not true. And you offer none of these supposedly brilliant critiques for any readers to counter while also lobbing a grenade in the direction of thoughtful pundits like Ben Shapiro without any specifics.
You’re welcome to criticize Trump but stop with the crocodile tears when people disagree with you or accuse you of simply disliking the guy to the point that you can’t give him a fair shake.
Good range of topics and insights by all. A great mosaic of our country and our world.
My biggest issue is forming around the role of Crisis Magazine in all this. I think Trump is doing well and from all I can see, God supports him. The same for America in general. I am not planning on rambling on this. My real issue is with the Catholic Church.
The real issue we face is not to pick who we think is right or wrong. The real issue is to start heading to a new way of working and thinking together … with God. Jesus is the one who presented the Beatitudes and many insights and examples of how we need to do things. Including the new awareness the God is Our Father and that His ways are not … make that NOT…. ours.
If I had to pick one silver bullet … which we always seem to want to do … it would be to get our attention towards contemplative living (ala, Thomas Merton) and get spiritual. Religion is Catholic but rudderless without spirituality. Thought the comments above on Moses were spot on. Time for us to evolve, Brothers and Sisters. And that takes collaboration … among ourselves and with the Trinity as promised.
Happy to discuss what Crisis Mag could noodle on but this article is not it. Sorry.
Tony
A few thousand years ago God used Moses as His instrument to make spectacular miracles and lead the Israelites out of slavery and into the desert where they regained their freedom and were kept safe.
Were the people grateful? No! They groaned and complained because Moses did not make them comfortable enough. They had to bear some hardships for their freedom. So they turned against Moses.
Some things never change.
Was curious to see if you got any comments or responses to your thoughts, Maggie. None so far.
There are many differences in our world and that of Moses. And yet some similarities that, as always, put us right back to The Fall. We seem to miss those things we keep doing to make that happen over and over.
No real interest in getting at this it seems. We have a ways to go. Perhaps this is not yet the crisis?
I am 48, voted for Trump, and while I am very upset with his foreign policy I do not regret voting for him. Politics is always a matter of lesser evils, and Trump is certainly the lesser evil between he and Biden/Harris.
The war in Iran is wrong and I am against it, but if Harris had won we easily could have had gotten into a nuclear war with Russia, which would have been much much worse. The Obama/Biden foreign policy toward Russia was leading up to that, and backing Russia into a corner where it may have had no choice but to start launching nukes (which we could not have intercepted).
And regarding the Epstein files, I know that I am in the very small minority here but considering how many years they have been in possession of the DoJ I question their integrity and even veracity. The DoJ is perhaps the part of the federal government most heavily corrupted by leftists, for the past hundred years. I have no doubt that there are DoJ employees capable of salting them.
Yes, Trump could be doing more to help with the cost of living. But it was the Obama/Biden policies that were largely responsible for the drastic increase, and Harris would have certainly added on much to this problem, which has at least stabilized to some degree recently. The “poster child” here is new car prices. This excellent article goes into detail on why (government regulations from the Obama/Biden years):
https://carcoachreports.substack.com/p/car-prices-arent-high-by-accident
The sad thing about Massie losing is that he was leading the charge to undo the most recent and heinous regulation, the “Biden kill switch” (and the fact that the fight about this is in congress implies that Trump’s ability do to anything about it is limited):
https://carcoachreports.substack.com/p/the-2026-car-kill-switch-fight-updates
Enough already with the TDS explosions. You have made your point repeatedly. Please get back to other more appropriate Crisis topics. Odd choice of timing what with the fund raiser and all. You are making this old and venerable publication about you. Please stop.
Mr. Kelly,
Thank you with also proving my central thesis with your first sentence.
It seems odd to think I’ve made my point “repeatedly,” when I haven’t written an article about Trump in more than two months, and spoke about him only twice in my last ten podcast episodes, even though he is constantly in the news. It seems more likely that you mean that *any* criticism of Trump is too much, which also proves the arguments of this article.
Also, the timing is simply due to the recent primary election in Kentucky, which brought these differences within conservatism to the forefront again. That’s what we do here at Crisis: we comment on what’s happening in the world.
God bless you,
Eric
The editor’s TDS is worse than I thought. Using hyperbolic language in the middle of the story of Trump’s presidency is unbecoming, at least. No one knows how this story will end. The youth vote is more fickle than any other demographic. Mostly emotional without a perspective of lived experience. For too long, leadership has been focused on favorability ratings instead of the long term goals.
DJT is willing to take risks and change his priorities when the situation demands it, unlike politicians before him for many generations. He is clearly not guilty of doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different outcome. He has set into motion an entirely different approach and, as such, the outcome is not knowable.
I’m optimistic, I’m old enough to understand the world is a very dangerous place.
Abraham Accords, board of peace, no nukes for Iran (not just kicking the can down the road for ten years), real economic sanctions for Iran and pressure on other nations to take responsibility for their own affairs. These are but a few of the ways DJT rethinks the current situation.
Finally DJT has attempted to undo decades of corruption and/or incompetence, all the while being attacked by every political class known to mankind (including the editor).
Will MAGA suffer an apocalypse? I hope most of your followers would prefer to have an America that’s great, with a moral compass that protects its citizens. That will take time, risk, and a leader who can make hard decisions. DJT is equipped better than anyone else on the current world stage and he’s surrounded by competent people ready to take over when the time comes.
Mr. Stachecki,
I want to thank you for your comment, for your first sentence proves the central thesis of my article.
God bless,
Eric Sammons
You are much kinder than me Eric, but your point nailed it! George is just another Boomer clown living in a cult of personality.
Ouch! Thanks for your thoughtful response. You know me well.
Mr. Stachecki’s comment is well-reasoned and should not be dismissed out of hand.
As to Bernstein – it’s just another version of the Russia collusion hoax. Bernstein was in his grave when Biden went into the White House. The Biden justice department, which spent four years honing their lawfare skills against Trump, had full access to the files over all that time and released nothing. The former Attorney General misspoke, Bernstein didn’t compile a client list, there’s nothing there.
Get over it.
As for Massie – he voted against Trump’s tax cuts. Republicans who vote against tax cuts are going to lose primaries. It happens.
Trump is working today to ensure our grandchildren won’t be incinerated by an Iranian ICBM. Paying a few dollars more for a gallon of gas for a while is worth the price.
The number of Americans who mistake Trump for God is a tiny fraction of the number of Americans who mistake Trump for Hitler.
That’s the question I’d like to see addressed.
Dismissing his entire post, which was thoughtful and substantive, by groaning that he accused you of having TDS, is a cop-out. An accusation, by the way, that does NOT prove the central thesis of your article. Man-up and address his arguments.
“they all had something in common: every single one of them”…..
Wow, sounds like the Acts of the Apostles!!
That didn’t last long did it? By what? Chpt 6….complaining about the economy, treatment, etc…
Anytime I read an article that says: they All… I’m suspicious (not conspiracy type)….
Looking for a savior in politics is dangerous for body, mind and heart!
Right Father, the savior will not be found in the political theater.
However demonizing political leaders is just as dangerous. In fact, it can lead to the derangement syndrome so prevalent in today’s discourse.
It even has a name.