Perhaps Ken, in the overhyped live-action Barbie movie, spoke for many of America’s young men when he defiantly sang, “I’m enough.” The film was mostly a feminist screed that bashed men as obsolete bird brains while pretending to say something profound about gender dynamics and the human condition. Whatever the director’s intentions, a major takeaway was that men are useless, unnecessary creatures who should shelve themselves.
But that was 2023, when the Biden regime was aggressively infecting the country with DEI and gender ideology. Young men were demonized and sidelined, at least until Kamala Harris realized that she needed them to win. Even the Democrats’ attempts to sway the demographic were patronizing and ineffective, however. The result was that, according to exit poll data, Trump won young men by 56% to Harris’ 42%. Joe Biden had won the group in 2020 by 56 to 41%.
As my 26-year-old twin brother, a finance professional, told me: “Especially for young men in their 20s and 30s, the last four years felt like the world was flipped upside down on its head in every aspect of life from the dating scene to getting jobs. Things are starting to make sense again.”
If anything, young men may be the group that is most optimistic of all Americans about the next four years of Trump. According to a CBS News poll earlier this year, 60% of voters said they felt generally optimistic about the new administration, but that figure rose to 67% among under-30s. There was a sharp sex split, too: 65% of men said they were optimistic, compared to 55% of women.
It stands to reason. One of the main policy priorities of the Trump administration has been to roll back the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) agenda. Many companies have now thrown out a system that privileged minority candidates in hiring, was often accused of discriminating against men, and institutionalized the idea that white men are at the root of the world’s evils. Whether these firms’ conversion is genuine or a grift to stay relevant is a separate question, but young men must now sense that they’re finally allowed to thrive.
As of early February, over a dozen companies had pared back or totally scrapped references to DEI in their 2024 annual reports to investors, including Pepsi, GM, Google, Disney, GE, Intel, PayPal, Chipotle, and Comcast, signaling a shift in corporate priorities including in staffing, NPR reported. Where the last four years had young men such as my brother saying, “Why bother applying?”, now they should have the chance to compete on the basis of merit.
Trump’s second term so far has not been shy about showing physical strength, either, another point that is likely to psychologically resonate with many young men. Masculinity, loyalty, and excellence are no longer under political attack, and pride in America is no longer discouraged. It is hardly surprising that, while in 2022, the military faced its most “challenging year in recruiting history”, with the Army falling 15,000 short of its 60,000 enlistment goal, the service since election day has experienced an enlistment boom, with a record-setting 5,877 recruits joining up in December.
And are we seeing other, more ephemeral trends starting to turn young men’s way? Since the 1980s, a gender voting gap has persisted, with women consistently backing the Democratic presidential candidate in greater numbers than men, according to a Rutgers study. The chasm was the largest in 2020 at 12 points, spelling bad news for men hoping to find a significant other with similar values.
But in November the gap narrowed significantly, with Trump’s support among young women rising to 41% in 2024 from 33% in 2020. Men’s dating woes are well documented, partially stemming from frustration with apps that encourage potential partners to focus excessively on appearance and give an over-abundance of choice. Perhaps life will be a little easier if there isn’t any longer such a gulf between men and women’s political views.
For years, the plight of young men has been largely ignored, despite the harrowing evidence of high rates of suicide, depression and loneliness. So the new spirit of optimism is encouraging, particularly if it translates into action to address some of the underlying causes.
It is also a political problem for the Left—and one that is unlikely to go away even as memories of Harris’s condescending campaign fade. Her team’s attempts to win over young men consisted of insulting stereotypes and lectures on why they should suppress their inner demons and back her because she was a woman. Trump, by contrast, made a concerted effort to appear on male-centric podcasts. But even if Gen Z legend Barron Trump hadn’t set his dad up with Theo Von or Lex Fridman, it was his platform and policies that seemed to appeal to young men.
Maybe even Hollywood will soon get the memo and stop producing movies that treat men as toxic, sexist or “problematic.” But even if it doesn’t, in the real world something significant has shifted. To paraphrase Ken, young men have their mojo back.