Young conservative activists who overwhelmingly backed President Donald Trump’s movement just months ago are now showing signs of fracture as the president’s Iran conflict drags on.
The divide has become increasingly visible among Turning Point USA’s (TPUSA) youth base, where young conservatives had recently rallied behind Trump-adjacent figures at AmericaFest before the war in Iran scrambled parts of the America First movement. Some TPUSA chapter leaders and young conservative activists are now gravitating toward anti-war figures such as Tucker Carlson, even as others remain loyal to the president.
Six chapter leaders have recently come out expressing their frustration with the president’s handling of the war with Iran, according to Politico. Trump’s pledge during his 2024 presidential campaign not to start any new wars struck a chord with young voters, who dramatically shifted to the right that cycle.
Steve Cortes, a former Trump campaign adviser and longtime America First commentator, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that while young voters were among Trump’s biggest growth groups in 2024, the president’s support among them has eroded amid economic frustration and the conflict in Iran.
“The two biggest groups where we made the biggest gains in 2024 for Trump and for Republicans were among Hispanics and young people,” Cortes told the DCNF. “Unfortunately, we’ve seen a complete erosion in both of those groups.”
Cortes said inflation and the economy remain the primary drivers of that erosion, but argued the Iran conflict has become part of the problem with young voters.
Michael McKenna, a Republican strategist and former Trump White House official, told the DCNF the backlash may not yet show up clearly in polling, but said the Iran conflict risks pulling Trump away from the issues that elected him.
“You don’t really see a whole lot of it in the survey data, but it’s mood music,” McKenna told the DCNF. “The president was elected to do something about the economy and something about immigration. It couldn’t be any clearer what they expected from the guy.”
McKenna said the Iran conflict “doesn’t have anything to do with either one of them,” and argued the war has made the economic picture harder for the White House.
“You’re not going to have a hell of a lot of economic growth when gas prices are five bucks,” McKenna said.
The fracture comes just months after TPUSA’s AmericaFest straw poll showed young conservatives remain overwhelmingly aligned with Trump’s political movement. The poll found Vice President JD Vance dominating the 2028 field, underscoring how firmly Trump-world figures still controlled the youth conservative base.
Young voters were a major strength in Trump’s victory. Comparing 2024 data to 2020, polling showed a shift among young voters toward Trump, with 56% of young men voting for Trump, according to TuftsNow data.
“A lot of people are seeing it as a betrayal. We were promised no new wars,” Rebekah Bushmire, vice president of the University of West Georgia’s TPUSA chapter, told Politico.
“If there is a nuclear weapon that us American citizens don’t know about it, put our life and security above our finances,” Connor Darby, vice chair of TPUSA North Georgia, told Politico, adding that he considered the war “distasteful” to young American voters. “[A]t this current point in time, with the knowledge we have in front of us … no, the financial situation is what comes next. We have to pay for food and bills.”
“[W]e don’t want to be back in the Middle East again fighting another forever war. … The goal is America first,” Darby added in his comments to the outlet.
Polling has shown that young Americans are significantly more skeptical about the war in Iran compared to older Americans. Sixty-one percent of Americans under 35 oppose U.S. military action in Iran, while 81% of those between 18 and 29 say there were insufficient reasons for airstrikes against Iran, according to a Marquette Law School poll reported by CNN.
The White House pushed back on these claims.
“President Trump is courageously protecting the United States from the deadly threat posed by the rogue Iranian regime – which past presidents have talked about for 47 years, but only this President had the courage to address,” Assistant White House Press Secretary Olivia Wales told the DCNF. “President Trump campaigned proudly on his promise to deny the Iranian regime the ability to develop a nuclear weapon, and he’s kept his promise. The President does not make these incredibly important national security decisions based on fluid opinion polls, but on the best interest of the American people.”
Cortes said young voters were drawn to Trump’s America First foreign policy vision because it emphasized restraint and avoiding foreign entanglements.
“They were very drawn to the America First vision of a foreign policy of realism and restraint, which we now unfortunately seem to be abandoning,” Cortes said.
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