Donald Trump has been facing a lot of allegations that he’s snoozing on the job. But we should give the poor man a break: he must be exhausted by his unceasing efforts to make life better for us all. At this very moment, for example, the Trump administration is spending $5m to cover four bronze horses near the Lincoln Memorial in thick gold leaf. No longer will passersby be subjected to subpar equine aesthetics. Finally, the American people will have the glimmering horse statues they deserve.
Meanwhile, the US has been fighting a war with Iran that, by one expert’s estimate, is costing $2bn dollars a day and will probably end up with a price tag of at least a trillion dollars. This may seem like a colossal waste of money to some, but real patriots understand that this is simply the cost of making America great again.
Alas, President Trump isn’t getting the appreciation he deserves. Instead of looking at the bigger picture (eg the strategic importance of enriching billionaires), people keep asking stupid questions like: “Why can’t I afford my groceries?” and “Why did my electric bill just double?” Trump has been sinking in the polls for a while now, recently hitting record new lows. Affordability is a key driver of negative sentiment, with a majority of Americans saying that the Iran war has made life a lot more expensive for them.
Image-obsessed Trump can’t be thrilled by his plummeting poll numbers. But what should really frighten him is this: he’s hemorrhaging support from young men, a demographic that helped him win his second term. Back in February, the centrist thinktank Third Way released a poll that found 66% of young men disapproved of Trump’s performance in office. Meanwhile, influential podcast bros like Joe Rogan and Theo Von, who played a key part in getting Trump elected, have publicly soured on the president. In April, Von called Trump’s attacks on Iran “diabolical”, asking: “What regular person is this helping? ... I don’t understand.” Rogan has also criticized Trump’s handling of the Iran war, noting that one reason so many people voted for Trump was because he promised “no more wars”.
Trump’s decreasing support from young men, and increased criticism from manosphere-adjacent podcasters, isn’t new. However, it’s getting more scrutiny as preparations ramp up for the 14 June Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) match on the White House lawn. The UFC’s core demographic is young men and UFC events played an important role in Trump’s campaign strategy. During a CNN discussion about the event on Thursday, the host, Kate Bolduan, was so shocked by Trump’s approval rating drop among men under 30 that she initially thought a graph shown by data expert Harry Enten must be incorrect.
“No, that is not a typo,” Enten said. “That is a 56-point move against the president of the United States among young men who helped put him over the top in the election. And now he is very much struggling with them. Maybe that’s part of the reason why he wants to put on an event like this, to try and connect with some of them.”
I mean, yes, that’s obviously part of the reason why this ridiculous event is going ahead. But Trump is going to have to do a lot better than a cage fight to win back disillusioned young men. Even Rogan, who has been a UFC commentator for decades and who is expected to be at the event, has his reservations about the fight. During a March podcast, he said he was excited but it was “weird to have a fight at the White House in the middle of a fucking war”. He added: “I would hope the war will be sorted out by June, but quite honestly, I’m not confident that’s going to be the case.”
Even if the war is miraculously sorted out by June, it’s already done a hell of a lot of damage to the global economy and US consumers. And we are likely to see even higher food prices because of a completely unnecessary war. You can’t just appease the people with circuses; you’ve also got to give them affordable bread.
All this said, I wouldn’t take much satisfaction from the dissatisfaction in Trump among young men. I have a horrible feeling that the Democrats, who put together a $20m plan last year to build a “liberal Joe Rogan”, have learned all the wrong lessons from young men’s lurch to the right. Gavin Newsom, for example, widely considered a top contender for the 2028 Democratic nomination, has been aggressively leaning into bro culture. He has even adopted manosphere language; in July, he called Stephen Miller a “fascist cuck”.
Should Democrats empathize with economically anxious young men? Of course. But they should not coddle angry men who have decided that women are to blame for all their problems. An extraordinary number of people appear to think otherwise. Richard Reeves, the president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, a left-leaning research institute, recently told the New York Times that he was exasperated by the seemingly ubiquitous opinion that young men are now all rightwing “Andrew Tate-style misogynists”. “Maybe,” Reeves said, “they’re actually really swingy and up for grabs.”
Please, can we shout that from the rooftops? Winning young men does not have to mean shifting to the right and calling people cucks on the internet. It doesn’t have to mean indulging misogynistic ideas. Zohran Mamdani, and his very healthy masculinity, managed to attract men and women alike: Mamdani won 65% of young men compared with the 27% who voted for Andrew Cuomo. If only the Democrats could learn from Mamdani, instead of trying to manufacture a manosphere of their own.
Image of ‘twin babies’ used by anti-abortion activist actually showed marsupials
Before you try to get people to come to your anti-abortion rally with an emotive picture of fetuses, you should probably check whether they are humans or sugar gliders.
The Trump administration is going after E Jean Carroll
Why don’t women come forward about abuse? Because they know they will face intense backlash. Just look at what happened to advice columnist Carroll after she wrote in her 2019 book that Donald Trump had sexually abused her in the 1990s. First, Trump accused her of “lying”, saying she was “not my type”. Then people sent her death and rape threats. Carroll got a victory of sorts in court: in 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, awarding the writer $5m. But now the president seems to be out for revenge. The Trump administration is reportedly looking into whether Carroll, 82, committed perjury in a 2022 deposition in which she said she did not accept outside financial support for her lawsuit against Trump.
Three teenage boys avoid custody for the rape of two girls in England
Why don’t women come forward about abuse? Because they learn from a young age that the legal system is not built to defend them. There is a lot of outrage in England at the moment over “unduly lenient” sentences given to teenage boys who raped two girls and shared a video of the attacks online. An appeals court will now review the judge’s decision.
UN adds Israel and Russia to blacklist for sexual violence in conflict
Israel’s ambassador to the UN responded by saying the country had cut ties with the UN secretary general because of the blacklisting.
Kim Kardashian is ‘taking 35 supplements a day’
“Supplement stacking” is all the rage, but it is normally a very bad (and very expensive) idea.
Women really are the fairer sex, study finds
Women’s faces are rated as more attractive than men’s, even by other women, according to new research. The preference for female faces drops over time, until it vanishes at 80 years old.
The week in pawtriarchy
A rare albino buffalo in Bangladesh has been nicknamed “Donald Trump” because of its shock of blond hair. Buffalo Trump had been slated for the slaughterhouse until public interest, and his nickname, saved his life. Now he’s in the national zoo with a sign identifying him as “White Buffalo (Donald Trump) Albino Buffalo”. Let’s hope it’s not the last time we see a Trump in a secure enclosure.
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Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist