One in two U.S. citizens believe the guilty verdict against former President Donald Trump on all 34 counts in his hush-money trial was correct, according to a new Ipsos poll, and just as many, 49%, say he should end his 2024 presidential campaign because of the outcome.
The poll, commissioned by ABC News, was conducted May 31-June 1 in English and Spanish among a random national sample of 781 U.S. adults. The findings carry a margin of sampling error of 3.7 percentage points.
Donald Trump was found guilty on Thursday on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records by a New York jury, composed of 12 New Yorkers.
They found that Trump had faked records to conceal the purpose of money given to his then fixer, Michael D. Cohen. The false records disguised the payments as ordinary legal expenses when in truth, Trump was reimbursing Cohen for a $130,000 hush-money deal he struck with the porn star Stormy Daniels to silence her sexual encounters with the former president.
On Friday, the former president announced that he would appeal, saying that "bad people" had brought the case against him. "These are bad people. These are, in many cases, I think, sick people," he stated.
However, the verdict will have a historic impact on his presidential campaign, as Trump faces a lengthy appeals process and the prospect of even more trials while also seeking the GOP nomination ahead of November's presidential election.
According to the Ipsos poll, 47% of respondents said they think the charges against Trump in this case are politically motivated, while 38% said they are not, but at the same time, the slight majority, 51%, think Trump intentionally did something illegal in this case.
About 12% think Trump did something wrong but not intentionally, and 19% think he did nothing wrong.
Public reaction to Trump's conviction is split along party lines, as the poll shows. Some 83% of Democrats say the verdict was correct and 79% say he should end his campaign as a result, while only 16% of Republicans say the verdict was correct and the same percentage say he should end his presidential bid.
The overall picture, including Democrats and Republicans, shows a split scenario, with nearly half (49%) of respondents saying Trump should end his presidential campaign as a result of this verdict, according to the poll.
Among voters who identify as independents, 52% say Trump's judgment was correct and the same number say he should end his candidacy.
Meanwhile, among respondents who openly dislike both Joe Biden and Trump, these views are more pronounced. Some 65% of Americans who view both Trump and Biden unfavorably say this week's judgment was correct, and 67% say Trump should end his presidential campaign.
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