Joe Rogan stands next to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 18, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
CNN conservative commentator Scott Jennings acknowledged Wednesday that Republicans made a critical mistake by assuming young men who embraced Donald Trump through podcasts in 2024 would remain loyal to the GOP.
Speaking with Anderson Cooper following the Democrats’ sweeping midterm victories, Jennings admitted that Republicans may have confused their newfound ability to reach younger voters with lasting political support.
“We may have mistaken the cultural access for political loyalty,” Jennings said.
“We started having a conversation with a lot of young men in 2024 through podcasts and other venues,” he explained. “People that maybe, you know, we didn't think of previously as Republicans.”
Jennings said Republicans wrongly assumed those voters would stick with Trump even as frustrations over the economy mounted.
“It's easy to say, well, they're with us now. They'll be with us all the time. You can't confuse those things,” the veteran GOP insider said Wednesday.
“Then you throw two years of, 'It doesn’t feel like things are getting better,' and they're not loyal anymore.”
CNN commentator Van Jones argued that young men initially embraced Trump because they believed the billionaire understood their financial struggles, only to become disillusioned when their circumstances failed to improve.
“Nothing changed. In fact, everything got worse,” Jones said, citing rising gas prices and worsening economic opportunities.
CNN’s Kacie Hunt pointed to influential podcaster Joe Rogan, whose criticism of Trump’s war with Iran was cited as an example of growing frustration among the young males Trump successfully courted in 2024.
“You just can never mistake access to a voter pool in one election for permanence,” Jennings concluded. “And that’s obviously what happened.”
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