"There has been a major shift over the last decade among young adults in terms of how they feel, their pride in being an American, because what are we talking about here?" Enten told CNN News Central.
"Well, let's just take a look – under age 35, pride to be an American, extremely or very proud. You go back a decade ago under Barack Obama, it was 71 percent of those under the age of 35 were extremely or very proud to be American. That number has fallen through the floor.
"Look at this, now that number has fallen in half. Now just 36 percent of those under the age of 35 are either extremely or very proud to be an American, and this is a number that we've seen across the polling data. There has just been a major shift, a historic shift in the pride that young Americans feel for their country."
Polling by party affiliation reveals a stark divide, Enten said.
"Okay, so there are two reasons why pride in this country is falling," he said. "One is younger Americans, the other is Democrats. Okay, let's take a look here. This is from 2013 to late 2025, a slightly different survey, but if you look at the same survey that I was looking at in the first slide, it's the exact same story. Democrats, pride to be an American, extremely or very proud. In 2013, it was 83 percent under Barack Obama. Look at this number now, just 31 percent of Democrats say they are extremely or very proud to be an American. That is the lowest number on record."
"When you combine both youth and being a Democrat, that number falls into the 20s, young Democrats, Generation Z Democrats," Enten added. "Less than 30 percent of them are either extremely or very proud to be an American. So what we're seeing here is both age as well as partisanship playing a major role in the fact that pride and the proudness to be an American either extremely or very proud, is at record lows."
Republicans, on the other hand, remain largely unchanged in their views, Enten said.
"Okay, this is where it gets interesting, right?" he said. "Because you mentioned, right, and I had mentioned that Barack Obama was president in the mid 2010s, and now Donald Trump, a Republican, Democrat to Republican, being president. But what about Republicans? Their numbers have actually stayed pretty steady.
"So let's take a look at this exact same poll. Republicans pride to be an American, extremely or very proud. In 2013, it was 92 percent. By late 2025, pretty close right – 80 percent. Maybe a slight fall in this PRRI survey. But I will note in the Gallup poll, which measures over a similar period, there was no change."
"There was no change, so what we're seeing is we're seeing younger people and Democrats really shifting away, shifting downward in their proudness to be an American," Enten added, "while Republicans have stayed pretty steady despite the partisanship of the president changing. But Democrats very much shifting away as the partisanship of the president, saying Donald Trump has really sort of changed the equation for young Americans and Democratic Americans or those who identify as Democrats, while he really hasn't changed the equation when it comes to Republicans, whose pride levels have actually remained fairly steady over the same period."
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