Former US President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Waco, Texas, US, on Saturday, March 25, 2023.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
As former President Donald Trump sounds off on multiple investigations that look like heading toward possible charges, three in 4 U.S. adults consider he has done something either illegal or unethical, a latest poll found.
Most Americans also think the probes of Trump — that are ongoing on the local, state and federal levels — are fair, in line with the most recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Monday.
The survey of 1,327 adults was conducted from March 20 through March 23. The prior weekend, Trump wrongly declared on social media that he expected to be arrested inside the week in reference to an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
That evidently spurious announcement set off a media frenzy, thrusting the DA’s hush money investigation into the front of the news cycle. The grand jury hearing evidence within the case was set to proceed its work Monday, and it’s unclear when the jurors will vote on whether to indict Trump — though news outlets have previously reported that the probe appears to be in its final stages.
Trump can be being investigated by the DA in Fulton County, Ga., the Recent York attorney general and the Department of Justice.
Asked in the brand new poll concerning the investigations into Trump, 46% of national adults replied that they think he has done something illegal. That features 78% of Democratic respondents and 41% of independents, in addition to 10% of Republicans.
One other 29% of those surveyed said they consider Trump has done something unethical, but not illegal. Forty-three percent of GOP respondents gave that response, together with 33% of independents.
That leaves just 23% of Americans who said they think Trump has done nothing incorrect. The survey of national adults has a margin of error of three.5 percentage points.
Meanwhile, greater than half of respondents, 56%, said they think the probes of Trump are fair, versus 41% who viewed them as a “witch hunt.” Trump has used that phrase repeatedly throughout his presidency and afterward to confer with a wide range of investigations into his conduct, including the 2 impeachment and removal efforts in Congress that each led to his acquittal within the Senate.
Eighty percent of Republicans shared that view of the Trump-focused investigations, in line with the poll.
The poll results got here days after Trump held the primary official rally of his 2024 presidential campaign. The ex-president, who lost to President Joe Biden in 2020, is currently the clear frontrunner within the Republican primary field, which up to now includes only a small handful of other declared candidates.
Trump’s stature within the Republican Party appeared to wane within the wake of Jan. 6, 2021 — when a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in riotous protest of an election that Trump had falsely claimed was “rigged” — and again following the lackluster performance of many candidates he backed within the 2022 midterm elections.
But the most recent Marist poll showed that Trump’s favorability split has seen little meaningful movement since he has been within the White House. The survey showed 39% of respondents viewing Trump favorably, versus 51% who had an unfavorable impression of him.