This is how Donald Trump convinces young people

Latinos helped Donald Trump win. Caleb De La Torre voted Republican for the first time this year. Why did he and his colleagues suddenly change course.

Natasha Hähni, Philadelphia/ch media

“Before these elections, I never really thought about politics,” Caleb de la Torre said. Four years ago, he voted for singer Kanye West “just for fun.” “I was young and I wasn't really interested,” the 23-year-old said. Things are different this year. He followed the campaign for months. “I find their constant comparisons of Trump to Hitler to be insulting to all those who have suffered from true fascism,” he said. It was because of statements like this from the “radical left” that he and some of his friends voted for Donald Trump for the first time.

The Republican president-elect did particularly well among young people, according to post-election surveys. Overall, 18- to 24-year-olds voted more for Kamala Harris. However, if you divide that number by gender, you find that younger people prefer Trump. This also applies to men of all ages. 55% of American men voted for the former president, while only 42% voted for the current vice president.

Caleb De La Torre voted for Donald Trump for the first time this year.Image: zvg

Harris' team knows this. With a sophisticated social media strategy featuring male celebrities like Eminem and Barack Obama and their running mate, former football coach Tim Walz, Democrats have tried in vain to get closer to this group of voters.

Trump has chosen a different path. He appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast, which is very popular with young people. The former president has also repeatedly shown enthusiasm for topics such as cryptocurrency and martial arts. Additionally, economic conditions improved for many during Trump’s first term—pandemic excluded. But as late as his appearance in the aftermath of the attack in Butler, Pa., many young people viewed him as tough.

All of this makes a particularly strong impression on Latino men. And they're significant: 30 million people live in the United States — and Donald Trump received nearly half of them this year, 47 percent, according to post-election surveys. That's 25 percentage points higher than in 2020 when Joe Biden was the Democratic nominee.

Putin immediately picked up the phone

Caleb De La Torre gives Trump a lot of credit. “It's crazy that Putin said immediately after the election that he was ready to negotiate,” he said. The Texan also liked Trump's plan to delegate health policy to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “We Americans know that our food is poisoned by many pesticides and additives.” Environmental lawyer Kennedy believes that the purpose of pharmaceutical companies and their regulators is to make America less healthy. Known as “RFK”, he has declared war on them.

But de la Torre said he's not really a Trump fan. Instead, he thought about who could better help the country. “If he said we were going to invade Iran, for example, I would object.” The young man's first official act will be for his new president to end the war in Ukraine.

Donald Trump has a lot of support, especially among Latino men.Image: trapezoid

He doesn’t think much of Kamala Harris. “I think she's a puppet,” the waiter said. But he thinks her biggest problem is that the Democrat was never elected as a presidential candidate. “I think that’s the real danger to democracy,” De La Torre said. Democrats often attribute this danger to Donald Trump.

He doesn’t think people who voted for Harris are evil. “I respect everyone's choice.” He only has a problem with certain voting practices: “I think anyone who votes for or against a candidate just because of an issue is stupid.”

De La Torre's father and grandparents illegally crossed into the United States from Monterrey, Mexico, in the 1980s. His grandfather is now a U.S. citizen. Not his father and grandmother.

Although Trump was elected on a promise to carry out the largest mass deportations in U.S. history, he is not actually worried about the possibility of his family being deported. “People are completely overreacting to this,” he said. He doesn’t think Trump would do that. “If he did deport my father, I would happily admit that I was wrong,” De La Torre said. (aargauerzeitung.ch)

US authorities late on Friday (Swiss time) accused Iran of plotting to assassinate Donald Trump and a human rights activist. Everything known so far:

U.S. federal prosecutors have charged an Iranian man and two New Yorkers with murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering. On Friday evening, Swiss time, a number of American media reported on this.