Young men are flocking to the GOP in distressing numbers, and thanks to them, Generation Z is on track to be the most pro-Republican in a very long time. 

In other words, we dismiss them at our own peril. That’s why I’ve taken to writing about the topic so much. It’s easy for progressives to wave them away with talk of male privilege, but it doesn’t serve us to smugly ridicule them if it leads to more Republican presidents down the line.

The problems these young men face are varied. Culture wars over “wokeness,” feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, and race often frame men as either villains or as beneficiaries of unfair privilege. But young men, being young and new to the world, haven’t necessarily enjoyed those supposed perks of patriarchy. As such, they feel unfairly maligned. Many respond by embracing the oppositional, anti-establishment posture the right offers, especially online, where figures like Andrew Tate, Joe Rogan, and other conservative influencers reinforce the narrative that Democrats are hostile to male identity.

At the same time, young men are falling behind in education, employment, and social mobility compared with women of their generation. Young men’s college-graduation rates lag significantly, and economic insecurity fuels resentment toward elites and institutions. Conservatives capitalize on this by scapegoating immigrants, diversity programs, and feminism, suggesting that young men’s struggles are the result of a “rigged” system favoring others.

And then the social media algorithms finish the job. YouTube, TikTok, Discord, and podcasts are powerful pipelines for conservative and reactionary content aimed squarely at young men. Algorithms reward edgy, contrarian voices that frame liberal politics as humorless, authoritarian, or emasculating. Democrats, meanwhile, have failed to counterprogram in these spaces, leaving right-wing influencers free to dominate the conversation among disaffected young men.

The economic picture adds more fuel. 

“While the overall unemployment rate was still a respectable 4.2% in July, for young men aged 20 to 24, it was 8.3%, which is near recession levels—and for recent college graduates, the annual rate is 5.3%,” wrote Bloomberg columnist Allison Schrager. “Both of these numbers are about double the comparable figures for young women.” 

Part of this, she notes, is cyclical: Men tend to work in industries more sensitive to downturns, such as construction and manufacturing, while women are more concentrated in sectors that are less vulnerable, like health care and education.

But that’s where the irony kicks in. Manufacturing and construction are also the industries arguably most affected by President Donald Trump’s tariffs. An analysis by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth found that of the top 25 subsectors of the U.S. economy most harmed by tariffs, a shocking 19 were in manufacturing.

And that’s not all. Repair and maintenance came in at No. 14, construction at No. 20, waste management at No. 21, and energy-extraction industries—i.e., mining and drilling—rounded out the list at No. 23 through No. 25. These are all overwhelmingly male-dominated industries. And as Schrager points out, the first to be laid off in those industries are the young ones.

You can see the vicious cycle. Trump’s policies directly damage the industries that employ young men, but when layoffs come, the right blames women, immigrants, and “wokeness” rather than the real culprit—the right itself. And thanks to the echo chamber of online influencers and algorithms, too many of those young men believe it.

Republicans break their jobs, then harvest their anger—while Democrats get the blame.