Gen Z regrets Trump support and is midterm motivated

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The Hill's Headlines (PM) - August 27, 2026

The Hill's Headlines (PM) - August 27, 2026

Thirty-one percent of Generation Z-ers who voted for President Trump say they regret it, a recent Navigator poll reports.

Millennials followed at 28 percent, with 20 percent of Gen Xers and 10 percent of Baby Boomers saying they regret backing Trump, too.

It’s another sign of the dismal polling Trump and the GOP are facing as Republican lawmakers brace for this fall’s midterm elections.

Gen Z was a significant source of votes for Trump in 2024.

He won 42 percent of voters born in the 1990s and 2000s, according to Pew Research Center, compared to former Vice President Kamala Harris’s 55 percent.

“Young Americans are telling us that politics is deeply important to who they are, but it doesn’t mean they’re happy with the current political system, or that they’re even optimistic about the direction of the country as a whole,” Tina Tang, director of polling and analytics at Navigator, told The Hill. 

The survey also asked about the president’s approval rating. Gen Z had the lowest support for Trump, with only 33 percent saying they strongly or somewhat approved of the way the president has handled his job. 

Millennials once again followed with 38 percent, Gen X with 39 percent and boomers with 41 percent.

The results are consistent with other Gen Z political trends, according to Tang. Forty percent of Gen Zers say politics is “very important” to their personal identity, the highest across all ages.

“Young Americans are disproportionately represented among people who are dissatisfied with Trump and the economy. It doesn’t mean they’re flocking to one party or another,” Tang said.

The researchers looked at economically persuadable Americans, or those who disapprove of how Trump is currently handling the economy but don’t necessarily trust Democrats to handle it better. 

The results show that 18 percent of all Americans fall into the category, but Gen Z skews higher than other age groups at 22 percent.

“Gen Z is not a group that’s hard to understand,” Tang said. “Politics are important to them, but they are also pessimistic about the economy right........

© The Hill