The proof is pretty evident now that the indictment brought by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg against Donald Trump has done little to impede the former president’s political trajectory. In fact, the indictment has largely had the opposite effect.
With Trump’s polling numbers strengthening in recent weeks, a new survey finds that Trump enjoys the backing of two-thirds of Republican voters who see the indictment and investigation as little more than a politically motivated hit job, NBC News reports:
A whopping two-thirds of Republican primary voters say they stand behind former President Donald Trump and dismiss concerns about his electability, despite his recent criminal arrest and other legal investigations into his past conduct, a new national NBC News poll finds.
That — along with his double-digit lead over his nearest potential GOP rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — makes Trump the clear front-runner in the early race for the Republican presidential nomination.
As one satirical Twitter user said back during the Trump indictment week, “DeSantis is working feverishly to get indicted by a liberal DA”.
There is an element of truth that if Democrats want to get rid of Trump, they’d stop making him their number one political target. As it stands now, Trump appears to be the one they’re most afraid of, although they also spend a lot of time tearing down Ron DeSantis as well.
The NBC story goes on to discuss how 2024 looks to be shaping up as a Trump-Biden rematch. This is mostly because Trump, so far, has been untouched by his Republican rivals and President Biden appears to be on the cusp of officially announcing his re-election campaign this week, possibly on Tuesday.
Voters in general, however, might prefer something else on the menu:
Substantial majorities of Americans don’t want Trump or President Joe Biden to run for president in 2024, setting up a potentially divisive and uninspiring general-election rematch between the two men, with Biden expected to launch his re-election bid in the coming days.
And half of those who don’t want Biden, 80, to run say the president’s age is a “major” reason why.
Trump is 76 years old.
“At this stage, 2024 is shaping up to be a sequel of the 2020 election,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research, which conducted this poll with Republican pollster Bill McInturff and his team at Public Opinion Strategies. “Sequels are frequently hits at the box office, but apparently not at the ballot box.”
Democrats hate Donald Trump because he wakes up in the morning, but they’re also not entirely in love with Joe Biden, either. On the other side, a great deal of the Republican base looks at Trump as “their President” and believes he was wrongly cheated out of most of his first term and a second term. Given what we keep learning about the 2020 election interference from top government officials with ties to the Biden campaign, there’s truth to that belief.
If 2024 is a Trump-Biden rematch, Democrats will be set up to vote against something while Republicans will be more enthusiastically voting for something.
The bystanders here are basically Trump’s Republican rivals. Sure, Ron DeSantis is not being written out of the storyline yet for the 2024 GOP primary, but until he formally announces, some of his support may be softening or getting antsy.
The primary field could reset in May or June depending on when and if DeSantis officially enters the race.
For now, it’s Trump’s show and Trump’s party in 2024 until someone wrestles it away from him.
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