A new poll spells potential trouble for former President Donald Trump as he stands trial in Manhattan in his criminal hush money case.
Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, became the first former president in U.S. history to stand trial in a criminal case last month. Following an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, Trump was indicted in March 2023 on 34 charges of allegedly falsifying business records relating to hush money payments that were made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges and said the case against him is politically motivated.
Despite Trump’s legal troubles, which include three other criminal indictments—all of which he has pleaded not guilty to—it remains a tight race in the polls between the former president and his likely challenger in November, President Joe Biden, the Democratic incumbent.
However, this can change if Trump is convicted. According to an ABC News/Ipsos poll produced by Langer Research Associates and conducted between April 25 to 30 that was published on Sunday, 80 percent of Trump’s supporters said they will continue to stand by him if he was convicted of a felony in the hush money case. Meanwhile, 20 percent of his base would either reconsider their support (16 percent) or withdraw their support of Trump (4 percent).
The sample size of the subgroup of Trump supporters was 937 adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4. The national sample size of the poll was 2,260 adults and the margin of error for the full sample was 2 percentage points. Of the national sample size, 31 percent were Democrats, 29 percent were Republicans and 28 percent were independents.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s and Biden’s campaigns for comment.