Post the guilty verdict, 49% of Americans say Trump should suspend 2024 presidential campaign

A new poll launched after former President Donald Trump’s guilty verdict finds that nearly half of Americans believe he should drop his 2024 presidential campaign. Contrarily, almost half of Americans also hold the belief that all charges against him in the criminal hush money cases were politically motivated.

FILE – In this combination of photos, President Joe Biden speaks on Aug. 10, 2023, in Salt Lake City, from left, former President Donald Trump speaks on July 8, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo, File)(AP)

The latest post-conviction survey released by ABC News/Ipsos on Sunday reflected trouble ahead for the Republican presidential nominee.

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Despite the warning signs for Trump, favourable opinions of him and his frontrunning Democrat rival, Joe Biden, remained largely unchanged after the historic New York trial declared Trump the first-ever convicted former president. The poll was conducted from May 31 to June 1.

Donald Trump vs Joe Biden: Results of the post-conviction poll

Although Americans majorly agreed with the verdict, with the survey reflecting 50% of pollers agreeing with the hush money trial’s verdict, a quarter of Americans (23%) didn’t have an opinion on whether the verdict was correct or not. On the other hand, 27% of the pollers didn’t support the verdict of Trump “falsifying business records regarding a payment made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.”

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Meanwhile, even with Trump being found guilty on all 34 counts on Thursday, his favorability firmly held the ground at 31%. As for the favourable numbers pushing for Biden, the results remained consistently low. His rating stood at 32%, whereas a similar March 2024 poll recorded his favorability at 33%.

With 47% of Americans claiming that the charges against him were politically motivated, 38% disagreed with the notion. Similarly, slightly over half of Americans (51%) perceive that the former president was involved in something “illegal.” Among the remaining numbers, 12% believe that though he engaged in something wrong, he didn’t do it intentionally. At the same time, 19% firmly held the belief that he didn’t do anything wrong.

Bipartisan divide and its translation in the survey numbers

Meanwhile, along bipartisan lines, 16% of Republicans stood by the verdict, representing the same percentage of people admitting Trump should put an end to his campaign. Conversely, 83% of Democrats agreed with the verdict, and 79% nodded to the idea of him dropping out of the presidential race.

Ultimately, 49% of pollers struck out, suggesting that Trump should call off the presidential campaign. This figure bore an uncanny resemblance to the findings from a similar 2023 poll, conducted soon after the Manhattan jury issued his indictment. Back then, 48% of pollers said he should drop his campaign.

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Among these pollers, a margin of 80% of Republicans and 20% of Democrats perceived the trial’s verdict was politically motivated.

Independents and Double-haters to become the ultimate deciding factor

The significantly stable numbers across surveys showed a general unfavourability for both the contenders. Ultimately, ABC News’ poll suggested the result could be materially moulded by Independent voters or “double-haters.”

A 52% majority of Independents agreed with Trump’s conviction, affirming the idea that he should wrap up his presidential campaign. 45% of Independents considered the verdict politically motivated.

Among double-haters, these numbers hit a significant high, as 65% thought the verdict was correct. In addition, 67% settled with the idea that Trump should suspend his presidential bid. 50% of Americans who see both Trump and Biden as unfavourable candidates thought the hush money trial was politically motivated.

On the political field, Trump questioned the legitimacy of the verdict, declaring those levying these charges him “bad… sick people.” His legal team is planning to appeal the verdict, with Trump himself calling on the Supreme Court to intervene and annul his guilty verdict.