Roughly Half Of Americans Think Trump Prosecution Was Politically Motivated: POLL

Nearly half of Americans believe former President Donald Trump’s charges brought forth by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg were politically motivated, according to a Sunday poll from ABC News/Ipsos.

The poll showed that 47% of Americans believe the charges against Trump were politically motivated, while 38% say they were not. At the same time, 50% of Americans believe Trump’s guilty verdict in the Bragg case was correct, while 27% believe the verdict was incorrect and 23% said they “don’t know” if the verdict was correct or not.

Despite most Americans agreeing with Trump’s guilty verdict, his favorability remains unaffected. About a third of Americans at 31% have a favorable view of Trump, compared to 29% favorability in March 2024. Biden’s favorability also remained roughly the same following the verdict, with 32% of Americans saying they have a favorable view of Biden compared to 33% in March.

American’s opinion of the Trump verdict is more polarized among those who closely followed the case. Of the 55% of Americans who said they followed the Bragg case somewhat or very closely, 57% believe the guilty verdict was correct and 35% believe the verdict was not correct. Only 8% say they don’t know if the verdict was correct.

Following the guilty verdict, 49% of Americans said Trump should end his campaign, falling on strong partisan lines. Among Republicans, only 16% say Trump should end his campaign while 75% say he should continue. Among Democrats, 79% say Trump should end his campaign and 52% of independents agree.

The poll surveyed 781 adults between May 31 through June 1 with a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.