President Donald Trump’s net approval among voters aged 18 to 34 has fallen to minus 44, an all-time low for that age group in Echelon Insights polling. The deterioration is significant before the 2026 midterms because Trump’s sharply improved performance with younger voters helped broaden the coalition that returned him to the White House in 2024. Republican candidates now face the possibility that some of those voters could withdraw their support or stay home, although presidential approval does not by itself predict turnout or congressional voting.
Younger voters did not deliver Trump an outright majority in 2024, but his 47 percent share represented a major improvement on his performance four years earlier. Losing ground with a group that helped him narrow a longstanding Republican deficit could complicate the party’s effort to hold Congress. Some 28 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds approved of Trump’s job performance in the August survey, while 72 percent disapproved.
That produced a net rating of minus 44, the lowest recorded for the age group across the Echelon Insights polling series reviewed by Newsweek. The nationwide poll surveyed 1,002 registered voters in the likely electorate from August 13 to 17 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for the full sample. Across the entire electorate, 40 percent approved of Trump’s performance and 59 percent disapproved, leaving him at minus 19.
July told a different story. His youth rating stood at minus 30, while the overall figure was minus 23. That survey of 1,004 voters in the likely electorate was conducted from July 9 to 13, with a full-sample margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
The age split was barely visible at the beginning of Trump’s second term. In January 2025, his net approval measured positive 7 among 18- to 34-year-olds and positive 8 overall. By July of that year, the figures had fallen to minus 16 and minus 8, respectively.
Twelve months later, younger voters registered minus 30 against minus 23 nationally. August broke that pattern. Trump recovered four points overall while falling another 14 points with younger adults, turning a modest age difference into a substantial divide.
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