Former President Donald Trump earned the title of the first president to be convicted of felony crimes, and America thinks the jury got it right.
Following the historic 34-count guilty verdict handed down on May 30, an ABC News poll, in collaboration with Ipsos, found that 50% think Trump’s guilty verdict on his hush money trial was correct. What’s more eye-opening is 49% think he should end his 2024 presidential campaign because of it. The four-time indicted politician is eyeing an appeal, stating on May 31 that “bad people” were behind the case and the charges against him. “If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone,” Trump said during a press conference.
“These are bad people. These are, in many cases, I believe, sick people.”
Trump sat before a judge and jury in a New York City courtroom as the 34 verdicts were read related to falsifying business records on a payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election in order to keep her quiet about their alleged affair.
His trial has been the hot topic of the 2024 political season. Close to 50% of Americans think Trump’s charges were politically motivated, while 38% disagree. However, 51% think Trump did something intentionally illegal in this case, versus 12% feeling it may have been a mistake. Nineteen percent believe he did nothing wrong.
Of the 49% who think the verdict proves it’s time for Trump to shut his campaign down, the numbers don’t look too different from the 48% who shared similar thoughts in a poll from April 2023 – when the indictments were first handed down.
Somehow, through all the verdicts, the former President’s favorability has remained stable at 31%; but not for all his supporters.
According to Newsweek, a poll conducted by Echelon Insights between May 30 and May 31 found that the number of Black voters who were potentially voting for Trump had gone down – 27% to now 16%. Only 4% percent said they were certain Trump still has their support.
The revelation comes shortly after Trump’s son, Eric, said the convictions now guarantee “certain segments” of the population are now more likely to vote for
him. “For the first time, they realize that the system’s coming down, that he’s the victim, he’s the victim that oftentimes some of their communities were,” he said on Fox News on June 2.“And you see them swinging. Look at the African-American vote. That’s swinging over to Donald Trump in spades.”
Trump and his supporters once proclaimed that Black people are set to support him because they can relate to being discriminated against. His campaign team also thought the launch of $399 sneakers would help to snatch up the Black vote because Black people love sneakers. “So when you have Trump roll out a sneaker line, they’re like, wait a minute, this is cool,” Fox News’ Raymond Arroyo said back in February 2024.
Regardless of his legal woes, several lawmakers are still vying to support the former President during the November 2024 election. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) admitted that despite hush money convictions, he feels the Republican Party made the right move with their nomination. “Is it a good idea … that Donald Trump is the nominee? The answer is 100 percent yes,” McCarthy told CNN’s Manu Raju.
“Will Donald Trump win this presidency? The answer is yes.”