It would be safe to say that former President Donald Trump probably isn’t having a good week.
In addition to the indictments he faces in Georgia for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Trump’s chances of winning the 2024 presidential race aren’t looking very good, as nearly two-thirds of Americans said they won’t support him.
Two-thirds of Republicans – 63 percent – said they want to see the former president run again according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That is actually up from 55 percent who said the same in April and that fact would seem like a silver lining for Trump. Moreover, the poll found that seven in 10 Republican voters have a favorable opinion of Trump, which is up from 60 percent two months ago.
However, the skies are still pretty gray for Trump, overshadowing that silver lining.
The same poll found that just 74 percent of Republicans would support in November 2024 – meaning he can’t count on nearly a quarter of what should be seen as his base. More ominously, 53 percent of those American voters polled said they would definitely not support Trump if he is the GOP nominee, while another 11 percent said that would probably not support him in next year’s presidential race.
Biden Numbers Are Better – But Not By Much!
It already appears that 2024 will be a year where voters may opt to “pick the lesser of two evils” – or where they’re voting against someone rather than for a candidate they truly embrace. The AP poll found that 54 percent of voters said they would not support President Joe Biden – with 43 percent saying they definitely would not, while another 11 percent said they would probably not.
Yet, the bigger factor next year could be party loyalty.
Biden has 82 percent of support among Democratic voters, and currently, 98 percent of Democrats said they believed Biden to be a legitimately elected president. Just 41 percent of Republicans maintain the same opinion.
Majority of Americans Think Donald Trump Should Face Prosecution
Trump’s support among the GOP has increased following his multiple indictments – yet, more than half of all Americans believe the former president should be prosecuted on federal criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
A new national Quinnipiac University poll also found that 54 percent of Americans now believe that Trump should face federal criminal charges, while 42 percent said he should not be prosecuted for the alleged crimes.
“Democrats (95 – 5 percent) and independents (57 – 37 percent) think the former president should be prosecuted on criminal charges for allegedly attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, while Republicans (85 – 12 percent) think Trump should not be prosecuted. The poll was conducted from August 10th through August 14th,” the pollsters reported.
“Not only do a large majority of Americans regard the federal charges as serious, more than half of Americans think the former president should face prosecution,” Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a statement.
Around half of the respondents in the Quinnipiac University poll – 49 percent – said that the federal election indictment hasn’t changed their view of the former president. Though 37 percent did say they viewed Donald Trump less favorably, 12 percent said they actually had a more favorable view following the indictment.
An ABC News/Ipsos poll also found that 63 percent of Americans said the charges approved by a grand jury in Georgia, also related to the efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, were serious; with 47 percent saying the charges were serious and 16 percent saying they were somewhat serious.
With the various polls mostly showing the same opinions, it suggests the country remains deeply divided – a fact that is unlikely to change heading into the 2024 presidential election.
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
