Half of Americans believe Trump’s guilty verdict was correct and should end campaign: POLL

A plurality of Americans, 50%, believe former President Donald Trump’s guilty verdict on all 34 counts in his hush money trial was correct, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll, and nearly as many, 49 % thinks he should end his term in 2024. presidential campaign on the result.

Still, after the historic criminal trial that ended this week with the first conviction of a former president, the preference for Trump has remained stable at 31%, according to the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted using the Ipsos KnowledgePanel. Trump was found guilty of 34 counts Thursday at his trial related to falsifying business records related to a payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to keep her quiet about her alleged affair.

The former president vowed to appeal and said Friday that “bad people” had brought the case (and charges) against him.

47 percent of Americans said they thought the charges against Trump in this case were politically motivated, while 38 percent say they were not. At the same time, a slight majority of 51% believe that Trump intentionally did something illegal in this case. Twelve percent believe Trump did something wrong but not intentionally, and 19 percent believe he did nothing wrong.

The share of Americans who say Trump should end his presidential campaign as a result of this verdict is 49%, which is similar to the results of an April 2023 ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted shortly after the Manhattan grand jury will indict him in this case. In April 2023 polls, 48% thought he should suspend his campaign because of the impeachment.

Biden’s favorability rating also remains low and unchanged, according to the new ABC News/Ipsos poll. Her favorability rating currently stands at 32%, compared to 33% in an ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted in March 2024. Public reaction to Trump’s guilty verdict falls along partisan lines. For example, 83% of Democrats think the verdict was correct and 79% think they should end their 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.

Since both Biden and Trump are generally viewed unfavorably, the choice could fall to independent voters, or even more specifically, those who dislike both candidates, sometimes referred to as those who They hate both.

A majority of independents believe Trump’s verdict was correct, 52%, and the same number believe he should end his candidacy. For haters of both, those reactions are even more pronounced: 65% of Americans who view both Trump and Biden unfavorably think this week’s verdict was correct, and 67% think Trump should end to his presidential campaign.

Forty-five percent of independents and 51 percent of double haters think the hush money trial was politically motivated, compared to 83 percent of Republicans and 20 percent of Democrats.

In the New York trial, Trump’s attacks are largely directed at the district attorney, the judge and the jury, all of whom he claims are unfairly politically biased against him. Trump also went after President Biden, claiming, without evidence, that he was behind the impeachment.

“If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone,” Trump said during a news conference at Trump Tower in Manhattan. “These are bad people. I think in many cases they are sick people.” Biden, in his own comments later Friday, rejected the rule of law as being “reaffirmed” and statements questioning the legitimacy of the process as “dangerous.”

METHODOLOGY

ABC News’ Dan Merkle and Ken Goldstein contributed to this report.