As Donald Trump’s presidency shoulders on, a curious thing is happening with the youngest cohort of American voters: Gen Z’s support for the president is crumbling, but they’re not swinging in favor of the Democrats — yet.

It’s an amplification of a more general trend in American society right now. Across every age cohort, tracking surveys are showing Americans are much more dissatisfied with how Trump is doing his job this summer compared to their feelings at the start of his term.

Among those aged 18-29, this swing is particularly dramatic — a 27 percentage point drop over the last six months, according to CBS News/YouGov polling, taking the president from a positive 55 percent approval rating among Gen Z in February to 28 percent in July.

At first glance, these polls suggest an answer to one of the open questions from the 2024 presidential election: Was the rightward lurch of young voters a one-off? Depending on the data source, Gen Z voters shifted anywhere from 6 points toward Republicans to 21 points in the 2024 general election, becoming much more Trumpy since 2020. A majority of Gen Z approved of Trump as he began his presidency. And now, these ratings suggest the youth might be experiencing some buyers’ remorse.

That might be true. But recent data from the Pew Research Center, and trends among the youngest American voters, complicate this picture. Just because the youth are souring on Trump doesn’t seem to suggest a rapid swing back to his opposition. Instead, it paints a worrisome picture of frustration and........

© Vox