They don’t call him Teflon Don for no reason.
Former President Donald Trump has been impeached twice, arrested twice, lost the popular vote twice, and failed to secure a second term in the White House.
The 45th president is currently facing 71 federal and state felony charges and reporting indicates that’s perhaps just the beginning of his legal troubles, with further legal action potentially pending from alleged election interference in Georgia and whatever his role might have been in ending almost three centuries of uninterrupted peaceful transfers of power between presidential administrations.
Despite all of that — or perhaps because of it — he is still the leading contender for the Republican nomination in 2024, if not the presidency, according to the latest polling by the Harvard Center for American Political Science and poll agency Harris.
Conducted in the days after the former commander-in-chief pleaded “not guilty” to charges filed under the Espionage Act he willfully retained still classified state secrets without the clearance to maintain them, a poll of over 2,000 registered voters showed Trump continues to hold sway among the Republican faithful, leading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by a full 45 points with no other candidates seeing double-digit support.
“Trump is the clear GOP primary front runner; DeSantis is still the runner-up, but (former Vice President Mike) Pence gained 4-points,” pollsters noted.
Polling also shows that President Biden would not do as well in a second matchup against the 45th president as he did in the first, when he earned a historic 81,283,098 votes, or 51.3% of the votes cast, becoming the first candidate to earn more than 80 million votes. Trump lost after earning 46.8% of the vote, or 74,222,958 votes, notably the most votes ever earned by a sitting president but still not enough to keep his job.
If the election were held today, however, despite any past performance or pending legal action, polling shows the former president would win the presidency by a wide margin. According to the poll, Trump would win 45% of the popular vote against Biden’s 39%, though a complete 15% said they are unsure this far ahead of election day.
“In a general election, President Trump enjoys nearly universal support from Republicans, leads Biden among Independents, and even holds support among 11% of Democrats,” the former president’s campaign wrote in response to the poll. “President Trump outperforms Ron DeSantis among Republicans, Democrats, and Independents in hypothetical general election matchups against Biden.”
A majority of voters, 66% according to the poll, think 80-year-old Biden is too old to be president again, and 59% have doubts about his ability to do the job.
Voters were not asked the same question about Trump, who will be 78 years old at election time but were asked whether they thought the former president should seek a second term at all. Most of those surveyed, 55%, thought it would be better if he did not, though 62% said the same of Biden.
A full 69% of voters think seeing other candidates on the ballot would be nice.
Voters were also asked about Trump’s indictments.
“While a plurality of voters say Trump is probably guilty of his recent charges, a majority would not have indicted him,” the poll authors wrote. “Most voters say the case against Trump is strong.”
Most voters also believe both former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Biden mishandled classified documents and were not treated the same as Trump. A majority, 55%, say Trump’s indictment is a matter of politics, not law enforcement.
