Most US voters think Trump criminal trial ‘politically motivated’

More than half of Americans, and almost all Republicans, believe that Donald Trump’s recently completed trial in New York was politically motivated, a sign that the former president’s conviction on felony charges will not dent his White House bid.

The new poll from Monmouth University, the first major survey since he was found guilty on 34 counts last month, found that 57 per cent of all voters, and 93 per cent of Republicans, thought the New York “hush money” case against Trump was driven by politics rather than legal considerations.

Just under half of voters, and nearly two-thirds of Democrats, said that the Department of Justice’s decision to prosecute Hunter Biden on gun federal gun charges was also politically motivated. Hunter Biden this week became the first child of a US president to be convicted of a crime. He and Trump both await sentencing.

The Monmouth poll, among the first big surveys published since Trump and Hunter Biden’s convictions, underscores both the partisan divide in the electorate and the limited impact that the verdicts have had on voters.

Trump and his allies have repeatedly accused Democrats of weaponising the judiciary against him for political reasons. But he has also used his legal problems to raise money to fund his re-election bid, selling images of his police mugshot from criminal charges in Georgia and declaring himself a political prisoner.

He still faces three criminal trials relating to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and his handling of classified documents.

The Monmouth poll, published on Thursday, found that voter intentions had barely budged since Trump’s trial in Manhattan. Just over four in 10 registered voters nationwide said they would “definitely” or “probably” vote for President Joe Biden, with similar numbers for Trump.

The results were virtually unchanged since Monmouth started asking the question last autumn.

On Wednesday, a Reuters/Ipsos survey found 80 per cent of registered voters said Hunter Biden’s conviction on criminal gun charges would not affect their likelihood of voting for Joe Biden.

Most surveys now show Trump and Biden in a tight race, leaving the election likely to be decided by a narrow sliver of the electorate in a handful of swing states.

Hunter Biden also faces a separate trial on tax charges in California, which is set to begin just two months before election day.

Have your say

Joe Biden vs Donald Trump: tell us how the 2024 US election will affect you