A Majority of Voters Agree With the Third Trump Indictment and Think It's the Most Serious One Yet
By Rob Todaro
On August 1, former President Donald Trump was indicted on federal charges in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Trump is the first former president in U.S. history to be indicted on criminal charges and has now been indicted three times this year alone.
New Data for Progress polling finds that a majority of likely voters (55%), including 53% of Independents, approve of the grand jury's decision to indict Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. However, 75% of Republicans disapprove of the grand jury’s decision.
A majority of voters (53%) say that the charges are appropriate to hold Trump accountable, while 39% say the charges are politically driven to attack Trump. This stays consistent with DFP’s polling from June, where more voters viewed Trump’s second indictment, over his handling of classified documents, as appropriate rather than politically driven. Impressions of the indictments are still largely divided by partisan affiliation.
When voters are asked to choose which indictment they think is the most serious, a majority (52%) choose the latest one related to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Notably, more than two-thirds of Democrats (69%) and more than half of Independents (52%) choose the most recent indictment, while Republicans are decidedly more split.
While our polling has consistently pointed toward voters approving the different charges against Trump, impressions of these indictments remain starkly polarized across party lines.
Rob Todaro (@robtodaro) is the Communications Director at Data for Progress.