Donald Trump Suffers Setback In Three Major Polls After His Guilty Verdict

Donald Trump has suffered a significant decline in the polls 48 hours after receiving a guilty verdict in his New York hush money trial.

Since the trial concluded, Trump's lead counsel, Todd Blanche, has disclosed that they plan to appeal the judgment "as soon as we can," amid speculations he may not be able to vote for himself because of the felony charge.

With the historic guilty verdict, Donald Trump became the first U.S. ex-president to be convicted of a felony crime, seemingly leaving his 2024 hopes hanging on a thread.

Trump suffered a stunning series of setbacks in three separate polls within the space of 48 hours after he was declared guilty in his New York hush money trial.

The former president had been on trial for falsifying business records to hide a $130k hush money payment made to former adult film star Stormy Daniels.

According to Newsweek, a YouGov poll showed a massive decline in his approval ratings. Fifty percent of the U.S. adults surveyed said he was guilty, while 30 percent said he wasn't. Another 19 percent said they were unsure, with the poll posing a margin error of plus or minus 2.3 percent.

When analyzed further into party factions, 15 percent of Republicans think he is guilty while 64 percent do not, 48 percent of independents believe he is guilty while 25 percent do not, and 86 percent of Democrats believe he is guilty while 5 percent do not.

A total of 831 Republicans, 1,114 independents, and 1,113 Democrats were surveyed, as the margin of error of the subgroups remained unclear.

According to the news outlet, a Morning Consult poll carried out on Friday further suggested a significant shift in public opinion: 54 percent of registered voters approve of the jury's verdict, while 39 percent disapprove.

Party lines evaluation showed that 18 percent of Republicans approve of the verdict while 74 percent disapprove, 52 percent of independents approve while 33 percent disapprove, and 88 percent of Democrats approve while 8 percent do not.

A total of 2,220 registered voters were tapped for the poll with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent. The data size and error margin of the subsamples remain unclear.

Fifty-one (51) percent of the 2,220 people polled said the presumptive Republican party candidate should end his presidential campaign, while 43 percent said he should not.

Trump, however, saw favorable numbers among the majority of the Republicans sampled, as 79 percent were against him quitting his campaign, while 15 percent thought he should quit.

In another poll conducted between Thursday and Friday by Reuters/Ipsos, 5 percent of Republicans and 21 percent of Independents noted that they were less likely to vote for Trump due to his guilty verdict.

On the other hand, 30 percent of Republicans and 13 percent of Independents said the jury's decision made them more likely to vote for the ex-president.

Nonetheless, the majority of Democrats (58 percent), Republicans (55 percent), and independents (58 percent) stated that the guilty verdict had no effect on their decision to vote or not vote for Trump.

Even with the former president's apparent decline in poll numbers, his camp thinks he has seen a spike in support since the guilty verdict.

The Trump campaign revealed that he nearly doubled his single-day fundraising records, raising $34.8 million from small-dollar donors in less than seven hours following the historic verdict on Thursday.

According to Newsweek, Trump's campaign communications director, Steven Cheung, said in an email on Saturday that "President Trump has seen an outpouring [of] support, which has led to polling increases and record-shattering fundraising numbers that include close to $53 million in just 24 hours, 30% of those who are new donors."

Cheung also referenced a Daily Mail/J.L. Partners poll taken hours after the verdict, which showed that Trump's approval rating was up by six percentage points compared to those who disapproved.

For the poll, 403 people were surveyed, with 22 percent of likely voters saying they had a more positive view of Trump after his guilty verdict, while 16 percent had a negative view.

Thirty-two (32) percent of likely voters who already had a negative view of him maintained no change in their opinion, while 27 percent of likely voters who already had a favorable view of Trump had no change with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent.

During a press conference, Trump also referenced the Daily Mail poll, implying that the effect of the guilty verdict had been positive for him.

Trump has since condemned the jury's guilty verdict, calling the trial a "disgrace" while maintaining he's innocent of all charges.

"This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt," he told reporters outside the courtroom.

His lead counsel, Todd Blanche, also shared that they'll be appealing the verdict, which could delay his sentencing.

Trump is scheduled for sentencing by 10:00 a.m. on July 11, just four days before the Republican National Convention, where he's expected to be formally adopted as the party's official flagbearer for the November election.