Have You Lost Friends Over 2024? You're Not Alone, Especially On The Left

The loss of friends is driven by one demographic, and you can guess which one

May 13, 2025

You may already have experienced it yourself. Whether you reacted with surprise or just wrote it off with dawning disappointment or a wry acknowledgement of inevitability depends on how well you know people. But new polling data shows what you may already suspect: your experience of losing friends since the 2024 election of Donald Trump is absolutely real — if very divided depending on your political tribe.

When national pollster Cygnal offered this writer the opportunity to suggest a question or two for their latest national survey, it was an opportunity to put to the test the experience of many Americans I know: in the past six months, they've lost at least one friend over the result of the 2024 election. The direction of lost friends seemed very politically consistent in my experience, but anecdotes aren't data, and knowing more people on the right than the left, it's possible this personal experience was skewed.

It turns out that it isn't. According to Cygnal's latest national survey of 1,500 likely voters (conducted May 6-8, with a 3 percent MOE), more than half of voters (53%) say "it’s at least somewhat common that their friends and neighbors have ended a friendship because of Donald Trump and the 2024 election" while "39% say not that common or not at all common."

The ideological breakdown isn't close. Democrats and voters who backed Kamala Harris in 2024 are far more likely to say friends and neighbors have ended a friendship over the election, with self-identified liberals saying they have a hard time co-existing and playing nice with someone who voted differently than they did by thirty points, a 2:1 margin (61% common compared to 31% not common). On the other side, conservatives are much more even-keeled — 49% say lost friendships over 2024 are common, but 45% saying it's not common.

If you wanted to drill down to the biggest dividing factor here, it's the portion of the coalition made up of college educated women — a cohort that now dominates the politics of the Democratic coalition. In their circles, they say differences of political opinion have led to broken friendships with friends and neighbors at a more than forty point rate, 67 percent to 24 percent.

One factor here could be an underlying belief that your friends and neighbors are just flat out racists over their political opinions. Of Kamala Harris voters, Cygnal's poll found that 62 percent say race relations have gotten worse in the past five years (since the summer of George Floyd), while 55% of Trump voters say race relations have improved or stayed the same. And again, the same cohort shows up to double-down on that belief: fully 75% of white female Democrats with a college-degree say race relations have gotten worse since 2020, compared to just 41% of black men.

It's the allyship that matters most, you see — not friendship.

The full poll will be released later today. You can follow pollster John Rogers here.

The Smearing of John Fetterman

Jamie Kirchick in the WSJ.

Adam Jentleson sent an email to the medical director of the traumatic-brain-injury and neuropsychiatry unit at Walter Reed hospital in May 2024. Sen. John Fetterman, for whom Mr. Jentleson was chief of staff, had been released from the facility in May 2023 following six weeks of inpatient care for what his doctors diagnosed as clinical depression. A year earlier, in May 2022, Mr. Fetterman had suffered a stroke while running for the Senate seat he eventually won. Healthwise, it had been a difficult two years for the Pennsylvania Democrat, who had become known for flouting the Senate dress code as much as for his policy positions.
Mr. Jentleson, according to a report in New York magazine, was once “proud” of his boss for seeking professional help. He later became so “alarmed” by Mr. Fetterman’s behavior that he quit his job. According to the 1,600-word email Mr. Jentleson sent to Mr. Fetterman’s doctor, the senator was suffering from “conspiratorial thinking” and “megalomania” while experiencing “high highs and low lows.” In “long, rambling, repetitive and self-centered monologues,” Mr. Fetterman was “lying in ways that are painfully, awkwardly obvious to everyone in the room.” Mr. Jentleson also said the senator was “preoccupied” with Twitter and driving “recklessly.”
Some of these symptoms sound like the job description of a U.S. senator. Revealingly, in a story that cites a bevy of ex-staffers (all anonymously) expressing their alarm about the mental state of their former boss, writer Ben Terris reserves his own judgment until the end. “I didn’t find any indication that the stroke had left him cognitively impaired,” he writes. So what is this 7,000-word work of breathless journalism really about?
Mr. Fetterman does indeed suffer from a debilitating illness: sudden onset political moderation. The first indication appeared in October 2023, when he repudiated demands that Israel desist from responding militarily to the largest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust. “We must support Israel in efforts to eliminate the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered innocent men, women, and children,” Mr. Fetterman tweeted 11 days after the group’s barbaric assault that left some 1,200 people dead and 250 in captivity. According to Mr. Terris, this steadfast support for the Jewish state “surprised” Mr. Fetterman’s progressive “base.”
Further symptoms manifested. “I am not a progressive,” Mr. Fetterman said in December 2023. That same month, as Congress debated a border-security deal, he remarked: “I hope Democrats can understand that it isn’t xenophobic to be concerned about the border.” Mr. Fetterman was the first Democratic senator to accept an invitation to meet with Donald Trump after the 2024 election, stating, “I’m the senator for all Pennsylvanians—not just Democrats in Pennsylvania.” Other signs of illness included Mr. Fetterman’s calls for his Senate colleagues to eject their corrupt colleague Bob Menendez, taunting anti-Israel protesters by waving an Israeli flag on the roof of his home, and conversing with progressive bêtes noires Joe Rogan and Bill Maher.
Conflating Mr. Fetterman’s political evolution with his allegedly declining mental health (dressed up as concern for his well-being) is extremely cynical in light of the debate that ensued after he suffered a stroke during the 2022 Senate campaign. Mr. Fetterman took three months off to recuperate, and when he participated in a debate, his performance was disastrous—forgetting words, pausing for long periods and speaking awkwardly. In his opening statement he said, “Goodnight, everybody.” At the time, progressives castigated anyone who questioned Mr. Fetterman’s fitness for office as an “ableist.” Now, when he’s clearly improved, they claim he’s unfit to serve.

Biden Staff Discussed Wheelchair For POTUS

Alex Thompson in Axios.

Joe Biden's physical deterioration was so severe in 2023 and 2024 that advisers privately discussed the possibility he'd need to use a wheelchair if he won re-election, CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson write in their new book, "Original Sin," out May 20.
Why it matters: The discussions reflected the extent of the president's declining health — particularly the significant degeneration of his spine — and his aides' alarm over it as Biden sought a second term at age 81.
The conversations also reveal the White House's determination to conceal the reality of Biden's condition, at the risk of his own health, while he faced a tough re-election bid against Donald Trump.
The book is based on interviews with more than 200 people, mostly Democratic insiders, with knowledge of the events that unfolded during the final two years of Biden's presidency. Almost all of the interviews took place after the 2024 election.
Driving the news: "Biden's physical deterioration — most apparent in his halting walk — had become so severe that there were internal discussions about putting the president in a wheelchair, but they couldn't do so until after the election," the authors write.
Biden aides believed it was politically untenable to have Biden use a wheelchair during his re-election campaign.
"Given Biden's age, [his physician Kevin O'Connor] also privately said that if he had another bad fall, a wheelchair might be necessary for what could be a difficult recovery," the authors report.