Something strange is happening in American politics—something no pollster or political consultant predicted.

Older Americans, long the bedrock of Republican electoral strength, are suddenly the most critical of President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the generation raised on TikTok and taught by leftist professors is moving toward him. But this puzzling reversal may say more about media influence and preferences than political ideology.

The numbers are striking. According to a RealClearPolitics poll out late last month, Trump has a positive approval rating among every single age group – except Americans aged 70+. With those respondents, just 40 percent approve of the job he is doing as president, while 54 percent disapprove.

Meanwhile, 42 percent of Americans aged 18-29 approve of Trump, while just 40 percent disapprove. That’s a stunning reversal from recent trends, where Democrats have typically performed well with young people while Republicans have remained strong with seniors.

Anecdotal evidence seems to support the poll’s findings, as it appears older Americans are the ones primarily filling the ranks of liberal protests against Trump and Elon Musk. Katie Notopoulos, a technology correspondent for Business Insider, reported in April that there “sure was a lot of gray hair” at protests she covered. Other social media users have variously shared that “a large majority” of protesters they saw “were over the age of 60” and that anti-Trump rallies were “sparse crowds of mostly older White folks, pre-printed signs, no clever chants.”

Exit polls reveal this trend played out in last year’s election as well. Data from NBC News shows that Trump won voters aged 65+ by a 52 percent to 47 percent tally in 2020, but lost this group 50 percent to 49 percent in 2024. At the same time, Trump made major inroads with voters aged 18-29. Joe Biden won that cohort 60 percent to 36 percent, but Kamala Harris only managed a 55 percent to 42 percent margin – an 11-point swing.

Edison Research’s 2024 exit poll found similar results, with Trump earning 47 percent of the 18–29 vote – up from 36 percent in 2020.

While the corporate media has largely ignored this shift, it nonetheless represents a stunning political realignment. For decades, older Americans were the GOP’s most reliable voting bloc. In 2016 and 2020, Trump dominated among the 65+ crowd. Republicans typically win older voters by wide margins and struggle with the young.

What explains this reversal? It’s not Trump’s policies or personality. Those haven’t changed. But what has changed is how Americans consume media – and how the legacy media covers the 45th and 47th president.

Older Americans are still getting their information from traditional, corporate-aligned outlets that have spent nearly a decade smearing Trump. While it’s true that legacy media ratings are plummeting, the viewers who are left are primarily older.

According to Pew Research, 66 percent of Americans aged 65+ rely primarily on television news. Just 27 percent cite digital sources as their main news source, and even fewer regularly engage with social media platforms beyond Facebook or YouTube.

In other words, millions of seniors are trapped in the echo chamber of CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, and NPR.

These outlets have never stopped pushing one manufactured “scandal” after another: Russia collusion, the Ukraine phone call, “threat to democracy,” the so-called “insurrection,” and in 2024, a wave of legally dubious prosecutions.

Just look at the headlines and stories that targeted older Americans during the 2024 campaign. Financial publications and mainstream outlets constantly pushed the idea that Trump would wreck retirement plans, gut Medicare, and destroy Social Security. Articles quoted panicked retirees, warning that Trump’s return would lead to economic ruin.

The message is always the same—Donald Trump is dangerous and must be stopped at all costs. Is it any wonder the seniors who primarily consume this content are increasingly starting to believe it?

It appears the corporate media is catching on to their influence with older voters, which perhaps explains why cable news outlets have launched into nonstop fearmongering over the Trump administration’s plans to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in entitlement programs. The legacy press has castigated these efforts – which in reality are a vital step to protect Social Security and Medicare from looming insolvency – as “cuts” to seniors’ benefits.

These aren’t news stories – they’re political propaganda. And unfortunately, they’re working on the very demographic most vulnerable to establishment narratives.

While seniors are being fed a steady stream of doom-and-gloom from traditional outlets, younger Americans are logging off legacy platforms and logging into something very different: social media and “new media” outlets like podcasts and independent websites.

Trump understood this shift better than anyone in 2024. He appeared on popular podcasts, reached millions through social media influencers, and spoke directly to voters without the filter of the mainstream press. He went on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” appeared in viral TikTok videos, and took questions from people who genuinely wanted to hear his point of view.

And it worked. Younger voters—many of whom are distrustful of government, skeptical of media institutions, and tired of being lied to—responded. They’ve seen how the media lied about COVID-19, about Hunter Biden’s laptop, about the Steele Dossier, and about the state of the economy. They no longer take the nightly news at face value.

For younger Americans, Trump’s message—that the media has become a tool of the left—isn’t controversial. It’s self-evident.

The misinformation crisis among American seniors is one that more conservative leaders should recognize. When voters are misled by false narratives, they vote against their own interests—and against the truth. The very people who have lived through the most history, who built this country, fought its wars, and for decades preserved its culture, are now being systematically misinformed by a corporate media machine that sees them as easy marks.

That’s why outlets like AMAC Newsline are so important. AMAC is one of the few new media platforms committed to directly reaching out to seniors and cutting through the lies of the legacy press.

In 2024, Donald Trump made history not just by winning again, but by flipping the script on age-old political assumptions. He lost ground with the group that should know him best, and gained ground with the group that was supposed to reject him outright.

That didn’t happen by accident. It happened because media narratives are powerful. And seniors, just like every other group of Americans, deserve to have new media voices reaching out to them and exposing the corporate media’s deception for what it is.

Hunter Oswald is a Research Fellow for The American Spectator. He is an alum of Grove City College, where he graduated Cum Laude with a B.A. in Political Science. You can follow him on X @HunterOswald8.

If you’d like to support AMAC’s advocacy efforts and ensure older Americans learn the truth about what’s happening in their country, you can do so HERE.