After his first indictment, former President Donald Trump increased his lead in the polls over his 2024 Republican rivals. Now, in the wake of his second indictment, it’s begun to appear that even federal charges won’t hurt his campaign.
Many GOP strategists say that most Republican primary voters already drew their battlelines on Trump long ago, meaning this indictment (for allegedly refusing to return classified documents to federal authorities after he left the White House) doesn’t change anything. That tracks with a CBS News poll conducted June 9 and 10 — right after news of the indictment broke — that found 76 percent of likely Republican primary voters thought that the indictment was politically motivated and 61 percent said it didn’t change their views on Trump.
“At least in terms of the primary, this certainly is not likely to impact President Trump’s chances of getting the nomination,” said Matt Terrill, former chief of staff to Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio when he ran for president.
But other strategists say that sentiments could change as the severity of the indictment and what it means for Trump’s electability sink in, especially among those in the party that GOP pollster Whit Ayres calls the “Maybe Trump” voters: people who like the former president, but also want someone who can win.
“Will the Trump pushback that this is all a partisan witch hunt be persuasive to them?” he asked. “Or will the devastating facts laid out in the indictment persuade at least some of them that Trump is carrying way too much baggage to win a general election in 2024?”
For now, he said, it’s too early to tell.
This indictment feels different, but Trump supporters might not care
It might be harder to pass off the damning details of this indictment as simply motivated by politics than it was for Trump and his supporters to dismiss his April indictment. That case concerned hush money payments to the adult film star Stormy…
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