It’s eye-opening, because 50 was the magic number in a Pew Research poll on Israel from earlier in the week: Overall, 58% of Republicans have a positive view of Israel — but for Republicans aged 18 to 49, 57% have an unfavorable view.
So something age-related is going on, splitting popular opinion.
From Newsweek: Donald Trump Scores Approval Rating Boost With Boomers
President Donald Trump is narrowing his approval gap with older voters, as new polling shows a steady improvement among Americans age 65 and over.
[…]
Older voters are among the most reliable participants in U.S. elections, and even small shifts can carry outsized political weight.
Changes in this group come as foreign policy dominates headlines and economic pressures hit generations unevenly.
Trump’s approval rating among Americans age 65 and over has risen steadily over the past three months, according to a series of Economist/YouGov polls.
My theory? Boomers and Gen Xers rely on social media as a primary news source significantly less than Millennials and Zoomers. We’re the last two generations that watched cable TV, read newspapers, and listened to talk radio. We’re political omnivores.
All that content we absorbed shaped our worldview. How could it not?
For Millennials and Zoomers, if their favorite YouTuber didn’t talk about it — and it never appeared in their TikTok/Reddit feed — then it didn’t really happen. As such, it makes them uniquely susceptible to digital psyops campaigns.
And that’s something Iran does extremely well.
It’s led to a profound cultural shift: Thirty years ago, all the good-hearted liberals were protesting for Tibet. Nobody was cooler than the Dalai Lama! At every award show, Hollywood’s biggest celebrities virtue-signaled by shouting, “Free Tibet!”
Today, nobody cares.
Between Tibet-related content being shadow-banned (or outright banned) from social media and/or entertainment companies submitting to Chinese censorship, Tibet is an afterthought. All those good-hearted liberals went from “Free Tibet!” to “Free Palestine!”
So perhaps Newsweek’s reporting indicates that Americans who are actually knowledgeable about Iran’s anti-American history are most appreciative of Trump’s efforts.
Remember, Operation Epic Fury didn’t begin until Feb. 28:
In the earliest of the three surveys, conducted February 6 to 9, Trump posted a net approval rating (those who approve of his job performance minus those who disapprove) of minus 12 among adults 65 and older. In that poll, which surveyed 1,730 U.S. adult citizens and carried a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 43 percent of respondents in the age group approved of his job performance, while 55 percent disapproved.
Which means, pre-war, Boomers were 43% positive, 55% negative.
A month later, the March 6 to 9 Economist/YouGov poll showed improvement. Among voters age 65 and over, 45 percent said they approved of Trump’s performance and 53 percent disapproved, narrowing his net rating to minus eight. That survey included 1,563 U.S. adult citizens and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
After the first few days of the war, Trump’s popularity ticked up by two points. Instead of deeming it “disgusting and evil,” Boomers nodded in cautious approval.
The trend continued into early April, with the most recent poll, conducted April 3 to 6, showing Trump’s approval rating among those 65 and older on the rise again, reaching 47 percent approval and 52 percent disapproval. The net rating of minus five marks his strongest showing with the age group this year. That survey was based on a sample of 1,750 U.S. adult citizens and carried a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. [emphasis added]
And by April 6 — a full month into the war — Trump’s popularity ticked up yet again. The longer the war goes on, the more Boomers seem to support it.
It’s eye-opening because D.C.’s conventional wisdom was always the opposite: Time isn’t on the president’s side. A long war will be a political nightmare. If Trump doesn’t find an offramp post-haste, the GOP will get slaughtered in the midterms. The public is paranoid that Iran will be another “Forever War.”
For Boomers, at least, that’s simply not true. They want a solution to the Iran problem — because they recognize that it’s a real problem. You can’t let Islamic nutjobs divide the atom.
If those maniacs ever gain a nuclear weapon, the world is in deep trouble.
It also suggests the next PR move for the Trump administration: It needs to invest in an information campaign that’s tailored to the sensibilities of Millennials and Zoomers. That means penetrating the YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit echo-chambers. MAGA messaging must meet voters where they are — and Zoomers are spending 6.6 hours a day consuming digital content. A Truth Social post, a Fox News TV interview, and a primetime speech aren’t enough to win their hearts and minds.
Because the more the audiences know about Iran, the more they’ll support the president.
One Last Thing: 2026 is a critical year for America First. It began with Mayor Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism” and will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the fate of the America First movement teeters in the balance.
Never before have the political battle lines been so clearly defined. Win or lose, 2026 will transform our country.
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