The Average Income Of Donald Trump Supporters Will Make You Pause

Depending on who you ask, there are as many reasons for why the Democrats lost the 2024 election as there are people with opinions. In a November 6th, 2024 Twitter screed — one day after the election — Senator Bernie Sanders blamed his party's failure to excite working class voters as the main reason for the Democrat's loss. Unaddressed working class angst could very well be a reason for the Republican win, especially when you consider how many Millennials and Gen Zers are experiencing moneyphobia as well as the reasons why the middle class is disappearing. However, is the assumption that working class Americans handed the presidency to Donald Trump actually accurate?

According to a 2025 YouGov poll, 59% of Republican men, and 45% of Republican women, identify with the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. Among Republicans, 52% of voters age 18 to 29 years old and 52% of voters age 45 to 64 years old identify as MAGA, while 59% of Republican voters age 65 and above said the same. The lowest number of MAGA Republicans, among those aged 30 to 44 years old, still represent almost half the Republican party at 47%. In every age cohort, MAGA voters represent the majority of Republican voters, but that still doesn't reflect the average income of Trump supporters or necessarily support the theory that most of them are working class.

According to YouGov, 54% of MAGA supporters didn't graduate from college, while 33% of the rest of the Republican party similarly lack a college degree. However, 49% of MAGA supporters are college graduates versus 43% of Republicans not associated with the MAGA movement. This matters according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data studying the average weekly earnings of full-time employees age 25 years and up in the first quarter of 2025. Americans with at least a bachelor's degree earning at the ninth decile earned as much as $3,848 per week. Americans with some college at the ninth decile earned as much as $2,197 weekly, while high school graduates earned $1,879 per week at the ninth decile, and high school dropouts made an average of $1,319 per week at the top end. While there are a few people that became wealthy without graduating from high school, the reality is that the median net worth of people with college degrees is typically higher than those without.

Per Pew Research Center, 63% of Republican voters with some or no college degree are considered upper ($215,400 or more per year) or upper-middle class ($143,600 to less than $215,400 per year), 57% are middle class ($47,900 to $143,600 per year), and 40% are lower (below $35,900 per year) or lower middle class ($35,900 to less than $47,900 per year). Upper, middle, and lower income earning Republicans with college degrees represented 43%, 42%, and 39% of the party's base, respectively, meaning most Republican voters are upper and upper-middle class.

Since many Republicans can be considered upper class, it would be fair to assume that they own assets, like a home. After all, homeownership, particularly in a decent zip code, can be a financial sign that you're in the upper class. As per the Pew Research Center, 51% of Republicans are homeowners compared to 45% of Democrat voters. Only 32% of Republican voters are renters, while 64% of Democrat voters rent their living space. 

According to a February 2024 Zillow study, you would need to earn $106,000 a year to afford a home without difficulty. That's a difference of 80% more than in January 2020. From this data we can surmise that Republicans, on average, earn more income and have a higher net worth than the average Democrat. Perhaps this reality validates Senator Sanders' views that the loss of working class support ultimately affected the Democratic party's turnout in 2024 — as this group appears to be more of the Democrat's base than it is Donald Trump's MAGA movement.