New polling indicates that most Americans — including a small but potentially significant number of Republican voters — believe that former President Donald Trump is guilty in the four cases in which he’s been indicted.
Trump has been charged with committing 91 criminal offenses across four separate investigations. Those cases include:
- His attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, including his use of fake electors to disrupt the Electoral College and his attempts to coerce elections officials to act on his behalf to illegally keep him in the White House;
- His transfer of government records, including hundreds marked as classified, to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and his obstruction of efforts by federal officials to have the documents returned to the White House;
- His alleged falsifying of business records in New York state relating to his “hush money” payments to women with whom he had extramarital affairs prior to the 2016 presidential race;
- And his efforts in Georgia to coerce elections officials to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in that state.
In the wake of Trump’s latest indictment, a Politico/Ipsos poll published on Friday asked Americans their opinions on Trump’s charges. Although the former president’s lawyers have consistently argued that he shouldn’t have to face a trial until long after the 2024 election, voters largely disagreed with that sentiment.
When asked about the federal case regarding Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, 59 percent of respondents said that Trump should face a trial before the GOP primaries, while just 19 percent said the trial should start after. Although most Republicans believe that the trial should take place after the primaries, nearly one-third of GOP voters (32 percent) think that the trial should start before.
When asked the same question but about the general election, the numbers were similar, with a slight increase in support for a trial taking place sooner rather than later. Sixty-one percent of voters overall said that Trump should face a trial regarding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election before the 2024 election.
The poll also asked respondents whether they believe Trump is guilty in the four cases he has been indicted in. Fifty-one percent of voters think Trump is guilty in both the Georgia and federal election subversion cases, while 52 percent believe he is guilty in the Mar-a-Lago documents case. A plurality of respondents (48 percent) also think Trump is guilty in the New York business records case.
Most Americans approve of the way the Department of Justice (DOJ) has conducted its investigations into Trump. Fifty-nine percent of respondents in the Politico/Ipsos poll said that the DOJ’s decision to indict Trump in the 2020 election subversion case “was based on a fair evaluation of the evidence and the law.”
In spite of these numbers, Trump is still considered likely to win the Republican Party’s nomination, as he’s polling well ahead of the other candidates. But the Politico/Ipsos poll shows that he’ll have a difficult time winning the votes of the general electorate, among whom he is far less popular.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.