Elon Musk and the Political Power of Young Men

There is no shortage of polls showing that the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump istighter than a pair of skinny jeans on Will Ferrell.

Numbers in key swing states like Arizona and Pennsylvania have gone from a Trump lock to a toss-up or even a small Harris lead. But as the saying goes, you don’t win elections in August. Both campaigns still need to swing large constituencies of voters, and one group is emerging as critical: young men.

In this election, there are roughly 41 million Gen Z voters — people between the ages of 18 and 29, and while Dems have traditionally counted on their support, the war in Gaza and the slow growth economy have turned many of them away.

In particular, young men struggling with job prospects and rapidly changing notions of masculinity are seeking a new ideological home that gives them a sense of meaning, support, and respect.

Enter Elon Musk. The tech billionaire recently endorsed Trump, but it was their two-hour-long conversation on X this week that formally ended their 2022 feud, during which Trump called Musk a “bullshit artist” and Musksaid it was “time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.”

Musk has now pulled a JD Vance-level pivot to Trump. He’s even offered to work with the former president on a “government efficiency committee” to make sure federal money is “spent in a good way.” Trump said yes, he was very open to hiring “Chainsaw” Elon to do some government clear-cutting.

So, how consequential is Elon’s endorsement of Trump? Very. Musk is a modern-day mashup of Thomas Edison and William Randolph Hearst — at once a transformational figure in business and technology but also, now that he owns X, an immensely powerful media influencer.

His publicly acknowledged journey from moderate Democrat to MAGA Republican has major appeal to certain voter segments — especially those with a Y chromosome who believe Call of Duty is not just a video game but a possible career.

To study those people, a group called theYoung Men’s Research Initiative just ran a YouGov poll of key influencers on American young men between the ages of 18 and 29. They found Musk and X at the top of the list, with the next in line not even close.

“68% of young men in our survey said they ‘like’ Musk, among the highest influencers tested,” the YMRI team wrote on their Substack.

Why? First off, because of his career. “The survey found that ‘entrepreneur’ was the most admired career among young men, particularly for young Black men.”

But does Musk’s popularity among young men really give him the power to turn the election?

“Trump’s base is MAGA, but that’s not enough for him to win, so he is appealing to groups that have often been overlooked, particularly young men,” Shauna Daly, a Democrat who helped found YMRI, told me.

“Historically, they haven’t turned out in large numbers, but this year they are frustrated, and somewhat organized, thanks to right-leaning influencers and media who are urging them to get out and vote for Trump. Democrats ignore the potential of young men to make a difference in the election at our peril.”

This is why Trump undermined his own social media company, Truth Social, and went back to X. Because X marks the spot where these young male voters live.

YMRI found that a massive 52% of respondents said they used X in the last week—up from a Change Research poll last year that put the number at just 33%. Even more critically: 64% of young Black men say they’ve used X in the last week.

Who else do these young male voters look up to? Far-right, male-chauvinist influencers like Andrew Tate in the UK — where Musk has played a massive role in the unrest surrounding immigration — are highly influential. Fully 27% of respondents say they like and trust Tate’s views, which is surprising since Tate is essentially a UK figure. Podcaster Joe Rogan was also tested, and 36% of young men say they like and trust his views, while 34% say the same about author and polemicist Dr. Jordan Peterson.

“Young men’s movement to the right is being fueled by their consumption of right-leaning media and influencers, with little competition from comparable [male] figures on the left,” said Daly. “The trust young American men have in Elon Musk, Andrew Tate, and others impacts not only their vote choice but also their offline actions, as we have seen in the UK this month, and their views of women.”

The views on women are fascinating, and they give some insight into why Trump’s Veep pick JD Vance’s radioactive statements about “childless cat ladies” or Trump’s infidelities don’t seem to have any negative impact on the young Republican base. “38% of the cohort say they have never been in a serious relationship,” according to the YMRI/YouGov poll.

About half of respondents agreed with the following statements: “A serious relationship is too big an emotional commitment” and “When it comes to relationships, there are too many social norms and rules for what is expected of someone like me.”

Too many social norms and rules is the key phrase. Trump’s campaign is fueled by a culture war on social norms which posits that everything from a “woke culture” to the “deep state,” from the courts to the education system, are out to curtail or crush the freedoms of young men.

For this group, then, the election is about something bigger: the very definition of masculinity.

The poll found that most men see key masculine qualities as “protecting your family,” “honesty,” “confidence,” and “helping people who need it,”which is confusing since the same young men don’t seem to want to be in a long-term relationship. How can you protect a family if you don’t have one?

But the bigger point is that for these young men, to be a “man” means playing by your own rules — as a maverick business entrepreneur stereotypically does — and projecting “strength.”

This finding illuminates why the Democrats, who have focused much of their efforts on suburban women and who rely on the salience of the abortion issue to rally support, are now scrambling to shore up their traditional “male” bona fides with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Selecting a military veteran, football coach, and hunter who sports Carhartt jackets and a camo hat — while defending trans rights and school breakfast for kids — is the Dems’ way of trying to redefine what masculinity means in a progressive context.

They know they need to offer young men a place in their party, and they have done a poor job of doing so up to this point. Which is why the Vance-Walz fight over their military service is playing out so openly: Each views it as the strongest card in their masculinity deck.

“Republicans believe they own masculinity and are campaigning on a belligerent and domineering version of it,” Daly told me. “But Democrats are embracing a different version, one that is centered on protecting those who need it and fighting back against the bullies trying to diminish the rest of us.”

As Kamala Harris heads to the Democratic National Convention next week, aiming to keep her enthusiasm train rolling and make history as the first female president in US history, the Musk-Trump interview has pushed a counter-narrative to the forefront of the election: What does it really mean to be a man in 2024?