By New York Post (Opinion) | Created at 2025-01-24 23:51:21 | Updated at 2025-01-26 06:49:28
1 day ago
For what seems like forever, Republicans have been seen as the party of stuffy country-club white guys, hopelessly out of touch with the concerns of working-class Americans, young people and black and Latino voters.
It’s the Grand Old Party, after all.
But things changed on Nov. 5 with Donald Trump’s election, and are only accelerating now that he’s returned to the Oval Office.
Black voters came out for Trump, giving him their biggest vote share for any Republican in more than 50 years.
Latinos came out for the 45th, and now 47th, president with their highest numbers for a GOP presidential candidate ever.
Rank-and-file union members went for Trump bigly: 60% of the Teamsters Union, for example, per their own internal polling.
But it was the youth vote, those under 30, that delivered arguably the most surprising result.
According to CNN exit polls, Trump won a majority of voters aged 18 to 29 in key swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin, something none of the “experts” predicted.
For context, in 2020 Joe Biden captured the 18-to-29 vote nationally by 24 points, topping Trump 60% to 36%.
More context: Per YouGov, The Donald’s favorable rating was just 30% among those under 30 after the 2016 election.
Today, it’s 53% — a 23-point jump.
And when a new CBS News poll asked voters if they are “generally optimistic or pessimistic about the next four years with Donald Trump as president,” a whopping 67% of those 18 to 29 said they feel positive — a 2-to-1 margin, making young people the most upbeat cohort surveyed.
The president may be 78, but he still has the energy of a Millennial, if the blizzard of events since his Monday inauguration is any indication.
And his Cabinet, too, is refreshingly youthful — especially compared to the current leaders of the Democratic Party.
Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren and the rest have looked and sounded like angry curmudgeons yelling at clouds and telling kids to get off their lawn ever since Trump’s victory.
The Trump team — most yet to be confirmed — includes Vice President J.D. Vance and UN Ambassador Elise Stefanik, both 40, and 43-year-old Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel are both 44.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is the youngest person ever to take on that role at just 27.
Even Trump’s secretary of state and attorney general, Marco Rubio (53) and Pam Bondi (59) respectively, look far younger than their birth certificates indicate.
That’s in stark contrast to the Senate as a whole, where 71% of sitting senators are years beyond retirement age, at 70 or older.
No wonder nearly 8 in 10 Americans support a maximum age cut-off for elected officials in Washington, according to Pew Research.
Meanwhile, the existence of black Trump supporters has Dems and their allies in the media losing their minds.
Look no further than the toxic stew that is “The View” on ABC, where “Republican” Ana Navarro basically called rapper Snoop Dogg an Uncle Tom for having the audacity of performing at a Trump inaugural event.
“You opposed and stood up against Trump in 2017, but you were there now . . . you spoke up against Trump Jan. 7, 2021, but you were there now applauding him like a trained seal,” the 53-year-old Navarro said of the 53-year-old Snoop.
And therein lies the rub.
Navarro is no older, but she sounded like a cranky fuddy-duddy — while the tuxedoed Snoop looked like he was having a grand old time.
The upbeat mood was infectious when country legend Carrie Underwood performed a capella during Trump’s inauguration under the Capitol dome, or when the MAGA crowd swooned to Snoop later that night, or when Trump broke out his YMCA dance, in a tuxedo with a sword in his hand no less.
If Trump has a successful presidency — taming inflation, making Americans feel safe, making our borders secure, and ending wars overseas while draining the swamp and eliminating all things woke — Vance could be set up for his own presidential term while still in his 40s.
At heart, it’s not about the visuals: It’s about America’s yearning for optimistic, can-do leaders who are the anti-Biden, the anti-Schumer, the anti-Pelosi.
That’s Trump, despite his calendar age.
That’s Vance.
That’s his Cabinet and his team.
Right now, one party looks like it’s having a blast, while the other one and its media friends are angry and preachy and unhinged.
And angry, preachy and unhinged doesn’t exactly scream unbridled optimism — unlike, say, this: “The golden age of America begins right now.”
Joe Concha is a Fox News contributor and author of the upcoming book “The Greatest Comeback Ever: Inside Trump’s Big Beautiful Campaign.”
