President Donald Trump’s victory last year was fueled in part by improvement among young voters. But new focus groups reveal why some young voters who backed Trump are beginning to sour on his administration’s approach to immigration and the economy.
“I believe my trust in the administration has completely nosedived because of how he’s mishandled things,” said Anthony H., a 22-year-old Republican from Nevada, pointing to immigration and foreign affairs.
Anthony was one of 14 swing-state Trump voters under age 30 who participated in recent focus groups observed by NBC News as part of the 2025 “Deciders” series, produced by Syracuse University and the research firms Engagious and Sago.
These voters were a key part of Trump’s coalition in 2024, as he made gains among 18-to-29-year-old voters, especially young men, compared to his 2020 loss. Trump won 43% of young voters in this age group last year after winning 36% of them in 2020, according to the NBC News Exit Poll. The exit poll also showed Trump winning 49% of young men in 2024, compared to 48% for then-Vice President Kamala Harris, while Trump trailed among young women, winning 38% of that group.
Of the 14 young Trump voters who participated in the recent focus groups, nine said they disapproved of Trump’s overall job performance so far, while five approved. The group included eight self-identified independents and six Republicans.
Unlike a poll, which uses statistical methods to demonstrate how a larger population feels, focus groups dig deeper into how individual panelists view key questions facing the country. Polling has shown that young Trump supporters, while largely still backing Trump, do disapprove of his presidency at higher rates than older Trump voters. But sizable majorities of Trump voters across age groups continue to back Trump’s performance as president.
“Young Trump voters who disapprove of the president’s job performance lament how he goes too far or not far enough,” said Rich Thau, president of Engagious, who moderated the sessions.
“For them, either the president greatly exceeds his mandate — like on immigration and tariffs — or he fails to stop overseas wars, or be transparent on Jeffrey Epstein,” said Thau, referring to the financier who died by suicide while facing sex-trafficking charges in 2019.
Some of these voters did praise Trump, largely on the economy.
And while some of the voters in the focus groups detailed concerns about Trump, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re inclined to support Democrats. Many of the young Trump voters described the Democratic Party as weak and out of touch, in a sign that Democratic candidates running in upcoming elections still have plenty of work to do to win these voters over.
Trump criticisms
Most of the young voters interviewed either cast their 2020 ballot for Trump or were too young to vote then — only two previously supported former President Joe Biden. They said they were drawn to Trump by factors including his support for Christian values, his business experience, and a combination of frustration with the Biden-Harris administration and a feeling that Harris was more of an unknown quantity.
“I found my cost of living increasing in the Biden administration, and then I also thought that Kamala Harris’ points that she wanted to implement were very flip-floppy and not legit or straightforward,” said Ean G., a 29-year-old Wisconsin voter who identifies as a political independent.
But now, Ean and eight of the other Trump voters in the groups disapproved of how the president has handled his job and, in some cases, pointed to his performance on the issues that drove them to Trump in the first place. Some of them feel he hasn’t delivered on his promises.
“I approve of how he’s doing with the economy and things like that, but I don’t approve of how certain situations are being handled with deportation. I don’t feel like you could be pro-life for one thing but not pro-life for a different” thing, Katelyn R., a 21-year-old Wisconsinite who identifies as a political independent.
“The way that these people are being treated don’t align with my Christian values, or my pro-life values, or any of the values that a conservative may have,” she continued.
Immigration was a popular explanation for those sharing their disapproval — even among those who said they supported the general idea of strengthening the country’s borders.
“I have not been agreeing with just taking a bunch of immigrants and even if they are innocent and throwing them back to God knows where,” Sean M., a 23-year-old independent from Pennsylvania who voted for Trump twice, said.
Others pointed critically at the economy, particularly the administration’s approach to tariffs.
Elizabeth M., a 25-year-old Arizona independent, said that while she thinks Trump “cares about the working class” and that she does agree that something needs to be done to help Americans businesses compete with other countries, “the tariffs have been a little counterintuitive” because of their effect on consumers.
She pointed to her husband’s experience as a car salesman and how new tariffs on car parts forced his company to change its pricing.
“I believe with the reasoning behind them, I do think that something has to be done to compete with the other countries. I think it just should have been affecting, maybe the big businesses versus us as the consumers being affected by it,” she said.
Other issues, including free speech
Others mentioned their unease with Trump’s handling of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, as well as what they called a lack of “transparency” around issues like the files related to the investigation into Epstein.
“I feel like the transparency as well is an issue, not just with tariffs, but also feeling like he switched positions when talking about the Epstein files from saying it’s a huge deal to saying that: ‘Oh, it’s not really a big deal,’” said Richard B., a 22-year-old Republican from Pennsylvania.
A handful also thought Trump had not prioritized lowering prices. Richard B. said that while it’s not a “bad thing” that, in his view, Trump has been “more focused on immigration [and] everything that has to do with foreign affairs,” that “people are struggling more and more, and not just housing, but also the state of living itself.”
That said, five of these young Trump voters did approve of his presidency overall, with some pointing directly to the economy and others believing that the direction of the country would be worse under Democrats.
“The economy is a lot better than it was before — pretty much all my ideas line up with Trump, so everything he is doing, I’m completely for,” Shana S., a 27-year-old Nevada Republican, said.
Harmony D., a 26-year-old Michigander who identifies as an independent and voted for Trump twice, said that she thought the country would be “doing a lot worse” if it were in the hands of Biden or Harris now.
“I feel like Trump has amended some of those wrongs that were done wrong back in the previous” administration, she added.
During the focus group, the young Trump voters also shared their thoughts about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the ensuing controversy surrounding ABC’s brief suspension of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, in response to comments he made in the aftermath of Kirk’s death.
All but one of the focus group participants said they were aware of Kirk before he was killed.
Shana S., the 27-year-old Nevadan, said that after following Kirk’s work regularly, “I felt like I kind of knew him,” a dynamic that compounded the impact of his death on her. And she and a handful of others lamented how people on social media, including some of their former friends, reacted callously to Kirk’s killing with comments that affected their relationships.
“I don’t want to associate with somebody who’s happy that somebody got murdered when you have kids the exact same age that are Charlie’s kids,” she added.
About half the participants thought it was fine for the Trump administration to pressure ABC to suspend Kimmel, arguing that hosting a talk show is a privilege, not a right. But they drew the line there.
“When it comes to free speech, these young Trump voters are united in the view that government should not censor journalists or pressure news organizations to only publish news that a president or administration likes,” said Margaret Talev, director of Syracuse University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism & Citizenship.
“But many are not as adamant about free-speech protections for media commentators or entertainers including Jimmy Kimmel, with nearly half saying they’re OK with the president or his regulators pressuring TV networks to fire or silence late-night comedians,” Talev continued. “Some said their rationale was that Kimmel’s monologue after Kirk’s murder felt ‘insensitive,’ or ‘too soon’ or ‘somewhat wrong.’”
Down on Democrats
In theory, disappointment with Trump could provide an opening for his opposition. Some of these voters also said they tend to agree with the Democratic Party’s position on certain issues, mentioning abortion, immigration and student loans.
But the focus group conversations suggest that Trump’s loss is not yet Democrats’ gain among the young men and women who backed the president in 2024.
Among the nine participants who disapproved of Trump’s job performance, just one said they would have voted for Harris over Trump if given the opportunity to redo their vote.
Apart from that look backward, these voters had several choice words to describe the Democratic Party right now, almost all of them negative, including “hateful,” “crybabies,” “selfish,” “lazy,” “ignorant,” “spiteful,” “opportunistic,” “trivial” and “divisive.”
They did offer some advice for Democrats looking to win them over, advice that largely reflected a view the party is too influenced by its left flank or hate of Republicans.
“I’d say for them to learn how to come to a middle ground,” said Shana of Nevada. “They always feel like it has to be their way or it’s nothing at all.”
Joel N., a 28-year-old Georgia independent, advised Democrats to pick “less progressive candidates” and instead elevate more centrist picks.
“I would say don’t base your political campaigns on something you specifically dislike about the other party, rather on something unique that you can leverage for your gain,” said 20-year-old independent Ruben T., who is also from Georgia.
Sean M., a 23 year-old independent voter from Pennsylvania, said he believed Democrats are more focused on “people who are trying to take advantage of welfare and more so immigrants.”
“Everybody should have opportunity to that, not just one group,” Sean said.