Trump has 'fallen off a cliff' with Gen Z voters, CNN’s Harry Enten says

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump’s popularity with young voters, especially Gen Z, has tanked since he got back into the White House.

CNN’s chief data analyst, Harry Enten, called it a “falling off a cliff”, and that phrase has been making the rounds in political circles.

All this unfolds as people keep arguing over Trump’s policies and where he stands heading into the 2026 elections.

Trump’s net approval rating with Gen Z goes down

Harry Enten pointed out something interesting on Wednesday, Jan 14: a group of voters who once helped push Donald Trump over the finish line in 2024 have now turned their backs on him.

“He has just fallen off a cliff when it comes to Generation Z,” Enten said.

Right after Trump took office, Gen Z actually gave him a net approval rating of +10, at least according to a CBS News/YouGov poll from that time.

Fast forward just a few months, and things look completely different.

A new survey from last week shows Trump’s net approval with Gen Z has plummeted to -32. That’s a huge swing, and it happened fast.

“My goodness gracious! This, as I said, is a very swingy group and it has swung very much away from Donald John Trump,” Enten said.

Gen Z identifies with Democratic Party

Enten also pointed out that more and more Gen Z’ers are identifying with the Democrats, citing recent Gallup polling.

In 2024, these voters indicated that they identified with (or leaned toward) Democrats more than Republicans by a margin of +6 points.

In 2025, there was a “huge widening” of that margin, which jumped to +20, Enten said.

“That was, in fact, the largest shift,considerably more so than any other group,” Enten said. “Yes, there was a shift in the overall electorate, but this, more than double the shift that we saw among the electorate at large, toward the Democratic Party.”

Enten pointed out that this trend stands out, mostly because Gen Z tends to be pretty independent, 56% call themselves independents.

Enten said that Gen Z is “more independent than any other generation.”

Right now, they lean toward the Democrats, but Enten warned that things can shift fast if Democrats don’t do a good job reaching out to them.

“So, yes, they are in the Democratic camp right now. They don’t like what Donald Trump is doing. But, look, that ball can easily go back into the other court,” Enten said of Gen Z. “Right now, Democrats gotta take that ball off the ground, we’re in the NFL playoffs, and they gotta run with that ball. Because if they don’t, I can assure you that the Republican Party will, as we saw in the 2024 election.”