--- title: Donald Trump Poll: Young People See Him as 'Illegitimate' description: More than half of Americans age 18 to 30 view Donald Trump's presidency as "illegitimate," according to a new poll. canonical: https://time.com/4706573/donald-trump-poll-young-americans/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-20T15:16:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:12.871Z article:section: Politics og:title: Most Young Americans Consider Trump an 'Illegitimate' President og:description: Almost two-thirds disapprove of his job performance og:url: https://time.com/4706573/donald-trump-poll-young-americans/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55162acb752a5a47/6988bf10ab6d77d30c6ad475/donald-trump-presidency-illegitimate-young-americans-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: donald trump presidency illegitimate young americans poll og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Most Young Americans Consider Trump an 'Illegitimate' President twitter:description: Almost two-thirds disapprove of his job performance twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55162acb752a5a47/6988bf10ab6d77d30c6ad475/donald-trump-presidency-illegitimate-young-americans-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Most Young Americans Consider Donald Trump an 'Illegitimate' President, Poll Says > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Mar 20, 2017 3:16 PM UTC  US President Donald Trump boards Air Force One before departing from Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida on March 19, 2017\. Trump is returning to Washington after spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate. US President Donald Trump boards Air Force One before departing from Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida on March 19, 2017\. Trump is returning to Washington after spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate. MANDEL NGAN—AFP/Getty Images  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Mar 20, 2017 3:16 PM UTC More than half of Americans age 18 to 30 view [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4696428/donald-trump-war-state-government/)‘s presidency as “illegitimate,” according to a new poll. The [GenForward survey](http://genforwardsurvey.com/assets/uploads/2017/03/March-Report%5F%5FTrump-memo-Final-Draft.pdf) found that 57% of young adults don’t consider Trump’s presidency [legitimate](http://time.com/4635375/donald-trump-john-lewis/), including large majorities of young Americans of color: 74% of black respondents, 60% of Asian-American respondents and 71% of Latino respondents. A minority of white respondents, 47%, said the same, [according to the poll](http://genforwardsurvey.com/assets/uploads/2017/03/March-Report%5F%5FTrump-memo-Final-Draft.pdf). The Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago [conducted the poll](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/how-the-genforward-poll-of-young-americans-was-conducted/2017/03/18/cd292e44-0be8-11e7-bd19-fd3afa0f7e2a%5Fstory.html) in cooperation with the Associated Press–NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Only 22% of young adults approve of Trump’s performance as president, while 62% disapprove. The survey of 1,833 Americans age 18-30, conducted between Feb. 16 and March 6, has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4706573/donald-trump-poll-young-americans/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4706573/donald-trump-poll-young-americans/"},"headline":"Most Young Americans Consider Donald Trump an 'Illegitimate' President, Poll Says","datePublished":"2017-03-20T15:16:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:12.871Z","description":"Almost two-thirds disapprove of his job performance","url":"https://time.com/4706573/donald-trump-poll-young-americans/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election","politics","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55162acb752a5a47/6988bf10ab6d77d30c6ad475/donald-trump-presidency-illegitimate-young-americans-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55162acb752a5a47/6988bf10ab6d77d30c6ad475/donald-trump-presidency-illegitimate-young-americans-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"donald trump presidency illegitimate young americans poll","caption":"donald trump presidency illegitimate young americans poll","creditText":"MANDEL NGAN—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4706573/donald-trump-poll-young-americans/","name":"Most Young Americans Consider Donald Trump an 'Illegitimate' President, Poll Says"}}]}] ```