President Donald Trump won the election, but that doesn’t mean he gained a massive foothold in every demographic compared to former Vice President Kamala Harris.
In his first interview with Fox News as president, Donald Trump expressed that his presidential win against Democrats was just a matter of common sense. In his view, he made massive advantages against Harris during the election. “I won all seven swing states. We won by millions of votes—the popular vote.” While this was true, Harris was only lagging behind Trump by three million votes.
Trump continued, “How about the youth [vote]? I won by 36 points. Now, maybe that’s because I won on TikTok.” This was false—the youth vote wasn’t won by Trump. Harris led by six points against Trump among voters ages 18-29, according to the election results. Ages 18-29 favored Harris more, with 51% for Harris, 47% for Trump, and only one percent for a third-party candidate.
Some social media users scoffed at Trump’s claim. After all, he had no need to fabricate the numbers. One X user wrote, “This is an absurd lie—Trump lost the youth vote.” Another social media user sarcastically wrote, “To Trump, anyone under the age of 60 is the youth vote.”
A post-truth world
Even journalist Mehdi Hasan weighed in on X. He wrote, “He lost the youth vote by 11 points per the exit polls.” Hasan followed the tweet up with a concerning thought. Although Trump spews these types of exaggerations and lies, his behavior receives no pushback or consequences.
Arguably, there are still institutions and people who correct and combat Trump’s false statements. It just so happens that this practice isn’t met with praise. Instead of being rewarded for fact-checking and truth-seeking, journalists are attacked by Trump’s followers on his behest. Outlets that present different views about Trump are penalized and dragged to court. Clarity and truth are poison to people who’ve built their lives on lies.
Published: Jan 24, 2025 04:48 am