Pride in the United States has fallen dramatically among young Americans, and a CNN expert showed Tuesday a clear explanation.
President Donald Trump is raging at Team USA Olympic snowboarder Hunter Hess as a "loser" after he expressed mixed feelings about representing his country in the Milan Cortina Winter Games, but CNN's Harry Enten said the 27-year-old views were similar to many others in his age cohort.
"There has been a majorshift over the last decade amongyoung adults in terms of howthey feel, their pride in beingan American, because what are wetalking about here?" Enten told CNN News Central.
"Well, let'sjust take a look – under age 35,pride to be an American, extremely or very proud. You goback a decade ago under Barack Obama, it was 71 percent of those underthe age of 35 were extremely orvery proud to be American. Thatnumber has fallen through thefloor.
"Look at this, now thatnumber has fallen in half. Nowjust 36 percent of those under the ageof 35 are either extremely orvery proud to be an American, and this is a number that we'veseen across the polling data.There has just been a majorshift, a historic shift in thepride that young Americans feelfor their country."
Polling by party affiliation reveals a stark divide, Enten said.
"Okay, so there are tworeasons why pride in thiscountry is falling," he said. "One isyounger Americans, the other is Democrats. Okay, let's take alook here. This is from 2013 tolate 2025, a slightly differentsurvey, but if you look at thesame survey that I was lookingat in the first slide, it's theexact same story. Democrats,pride to be an American,extremely or very proud. In2013, it was 83 percent under Barack Obama. Look at this number now,just 31 percent of Democrats say theyare extremely or very proud tobe an American. That is thelowest number onrecord."
"When you combine bothyouth and being a Democrat, thatnumber falls into the 20s, young Democrats, Generation Z Democrats," Enten added. "Lessthan 30 percent of them are eitherextremely or very proud to be an American. So what we're seeinghere is both age as well aspartisanship playing a majorrole in the fact that pride andthe proudness to be an Americaneither 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 getsinteresting, right?" he said. "Because youmentioned, right, and I hadmentioned that Barack Obama waspresident in the mid 2010s, and now Donald Trump, a Republican, Democrat to Republican, being president. Butwhat about Republicans? Theirnumbers have actually stayedpretty steady.
"So let's take alook at this exact same poll.Republicans pride to be an American, extremely or veryproud. In 2013, it was 92 percent. Bylate 2025, pretty close right –80 percent. Maybe a slight fall in thisPRRI survey. But I will note inthe Gallup poll, which measuresover a similar period, there wasno change."
"There was no change, so what we're seeing is we'reseeing younger people and Democrats really shifting away,shifting downward in theirproudness to be an American," Enten added, "while Republicans have stayedpretty steady despite thepartisanship of the presidentchanging. But Democrats verymuch shifting away as thepartisanship of the president,saying Donald Trump has reallysort of changed the equation foryoung Americans and Democratic Americans or those who identifyas Democrats, while he reallyhasn't changed the equation whenit comes to Republicans, whosepride levels have actuallyremained fairly steady over thesame period."