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Trump Got Rich - Did You? [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-05-31
Trump's 2024 win was powered by young men across racial lines - white, latino, black, AAPI.
Why? Analysts offer two main reasons: gender and costs.
On gender, some young men explicitly opposed a woman president. Others felt alienated from young feminists who challenged sexist attitudes. Some were swayed by Trump's nasty anti-trans ad that ran on endless loop during NFL games. Some got sucked into the "manosphere" of Joe Rogan and other rightwing podcasters.
On costs, some cited housing costs - both rentals and first home purchases - that made it impossible to move from their parents' home or live without roommates. Many cited the rising costs of groceries, cars, healthcare, and education.
As a lifelong feminist, Kamala Harris struggled to negate the gender issues. Still she tried - but when her team tried to book her on Joe Rogan's show, Elon Musk secretly plotted with Rogan to sabotage her.
On costs, Harris offered detailed policies aimed explicitly at young men, such as incentives for first home purchases and business startups. Harris also attacked corporate price gouging - which was fiercely attacked by Trump’s supporters.
What policies did Trump propose to help young men?
Mostly Trump offered symbolic gestures like a fake McDonald's shift to pretend solidarity with fast food workers. He also claimed his 34 felony convictions were as unjust as the racist mass incarceration of black men.
In reality, much of Trump's appeal to young men wasn't based on policies but on his brand: a TV "billionaire" whose pro-growth economic policies would help them become billionaires like him.
So after 130 days, it's time ask Trump’s young men a version of Sarah Palin's infamous attack on President Obama:
"How's that "billionaire-y" stuff working out for ya?"
Not so much - and it's showing in the polls.
Shortly after Trump's inauguration, he admitted he had no plan to cut costs. Instead he focused on tariffs - the "most beautiful word in the English language" - which would increase costs for imported goods.
When angry voters protested, Trump admitted his tariffs might cause "pain" - but the pain would be "worth it" when the tariffs eventually created US jobs. Soon major corporations announced they would have to lay off workers because of Trump's tariffs.
Still, many voters doubted Trump would follow through on his threats, instead expecting #TACO Trump would chicken out. So Trump's actual "Liberation Day" tariff announcement on April 2 came as a shock - and stock markets quickly tanked.
After just 10 weeks, it suddenly dawned on millions of Trump voters that Trump's policies would actually raise prices - and also wipe out trillions of dollars worth of investments, affecting young men with portfolios.
So for young MAGA men, the dream of becoming a billionaire turned into a nightmare. On social media, these men said they felt betrayed. And their anger was soon reflected in Trump's falling polls.
Yet as young would-be billionaires suffered, the opposite was true for grownup billionaires - especially Donald Trump and his "first buddy" Elon Musk.
Musk's greed came roaring out of the gate. While DOGE was illegally firing workers and closing agencies in a cost-cutting charade, Musk's former interns were taking control of vast government databases so they could make copies for Musk himself - what some called a "digital coup."
Data experts suspected Musk would use this massive trove of private data to get richer by using it to train his AI models and gain a huge competitive advantage that would make them infinitely more valuable.
And Musk found other ways to turn his $300 million investment in Trump's campaign into billions in added wealth through expanded US and foreign contracts for Starlink, SpaceX, and crypto.
Still, Trump refused to let Musk beat him in the greed game. In the midst of the 2024 campaign, Trump took his money-losing social network Truth Social public - and his supporters bid up the price to an absurd market value of nearly $8 billion.
Just before his inauguration, he launched his worthless $TRUMP memecoin that earned another $350 million including transparent bribes that Trump rewarded with a thank-you dinner at his golf club in Virginia.
This followed his bribe-collecting trip to the Mideast, where he proudly accepted a $400 million "flying palace" from the royal family of Qatar - by far the largest bribe in American history.
Still, there was no increase in wealth for the young men who voted for Trump - quite the opposite.
Trump's MAGA Republicans in Congress passed a budget that would force 15 million Americans off health insurance - including many young men. In fact, Republicans specifically targeted "able-bodied" young men with Medicaid work requirements, even though such requirements failed miserably in Arkansas.
Is this what young men voted for - higher costs, tanking investments, and unaffordable healthcare?
Not so much.
We’re heading towards a seismic political reckoning among Trump’s young men when they realize Trump got rich - while they got screwed.
[END]
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