Post-indictment Trump surge shows signs of cooling, poll says
Mabinty Quarshie
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Former President Donald Trump‘s post-indictment polling increase seems to have lost some of its luster, as Trump’s lead over Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has shrunk by 10 percentage points.
A poll from Yahoo News/YouGov, conducted April 14-April 17, showed Trump leading DeSantis by 16 percentage points (52% to 36%). But two weeks ago, the former president led DeSantis by 26 percentage points (57% to 31%) in a Yahoo News/YouGov poll.
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After Trump was indicted and arraigned in a Manhattan court for his involvement in a 2016 hush money payment scandal to a pornography actress, Trump saw a bounce in poll numbers. It suggested that far from hampering his 2024 presidential campaign, his legal woes were bolstering his support among GOP primary voters. (Trump pleaded not guilty to the 34 federal charges.)
But Trump is facing stiff competition from DeSantis, who has yet to declare a presidential campaign. It is widely believed DeSantis will announce a 2024 run after the Florida legislative session ends next month.
Trump and DeSantis allies have ramped up their feuding antics over the past weeks. Super PACs supporting both men have launched attack ads criticizing their opponents. As DeSantis made a rare Washington, D.C., event appearance Tuesday, Trump was busy undercutting the Florida governor by racking up more Florida lawmaker endorsements.
But another worrying trend for Team Trump is that less than half of voters, 49%, surveyed in the April Yahoo News/YouGov poll said they would vote for Trump in their state’s primary when including the vast array of 2024 hopefuls. At the beginning of April, 52% of voters said they would vote for Trump.
Less than half of voters, 49%, also said they wanted Trump to be the GOP 2024 presidential nominee. It’s the first time since February that Trump has fallen below 50% of voters wanting him as the nominee.
After losing the 2020 presidential race, 38% of voters said Trump is a weaker candidate. Only 31% said he was a stronger candidate than in 2020.
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Also not helping Trump is that 47% said they approved of Trump “being indicted for falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to a porn star,” a 5 percentage point increase from 42% over the last two weeks. A little more than one-third of voters, 37%, said they disapproved of the indictment, a 2 percentage point decrease from 39% over two weeks.
DeSantis, like all other 2024 hopefuls, still faces an uphill climb to dethrone Trump’s hold of the Republican base during the 2024 primary contests.