Republicans are much more likely to view former President Donald Trump’s legal troubles as the result of political abuse of the system than the natural consequence of his own actions according to a new CNN poll.
Sixty-one percent of Republicans believe the four criminal indictments leveled against him stem from the former while just 14% say Trump has brought these circumstance upon himself. Twenty-five percent are waiting until his various trials begin to reach a judgement either way.
Even if the charges against Trump were stipulated to be true, larger majorities say that would have no bearing on his ability or fitness to be commander-in-chief.
Trump has repeatedly characterized charges against him as a political witch hunt meant to harm his political prospects.
But in the Republican primary, his legal peril has redounded to his political benefit.
The same poll found that Trump is expanding his lead over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the GOP presidential primary. A majority (52%) now say they are inclined to back Trump, while the second-place DeSantis has the support of 18% of
Prior to Trump’s first indictment by a New York grand jury in the spring, DeSantis had been steadily gaining on the former president for months. At the of March, Trump’s lead had shrunken to just a little more than 15 points, but his poll numbers skyrocketed after the news of his indictment went public.
Still, Trump’s legal issues would present a problem in a general election. Fifty-one percent of the public believes the charges pertaining to the January 6 Capitol riot should disqualify him from reprising his role as president, while 48% says the same about his broader efforts to overturn the election.
Forty-seven percent of that larger sample attribute the charges against Trump to his own decisions, while just 31% agree with Republican sub-sample that they are a symptom of political abuse of the system.