Just 45% of Americans believe former US President Donald Trump should have been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury over an alleged hush money payment made to adult actress Stormy Daniels, a survey has revealed.
A new poll by ABC News and Ipsos found that a minority of Americans agree that Trump should have been "charged with a crime in this case." According to the pollsters, 32% of the US population responded that they disagreed with the indictment and 23% of those surveyed said they were unsure.
Meanwhile, a full 47% say the charges against Trump are "politically motivated," Ipsos wrote, noting that just "32% disagreed" with the premise that Democrats are using the Daniels case to advance their own agenda.
Indeed, the results proved to be predictably partisan.
As ABC News noted, "almost nine in 10 Democrats (88%) think Trump should have been charged in the investigation" by Manhattan’s District Attorney, but only 40% of Independents and 16% of Republicans agreed.
Crucially, the pollster noted that many independent-leaning Americans "remain undecided on whether Trump should be charged with a crime," a prospect which would leave the 2024 presidential election to the whims of swing voters.
Americans were evenly split on the question of whether charges were very or somewhat serious, with 50% agreeing and 36% responding that the former president’s supposed crimes were either "not too serious" or "not serious at all."
Those results, too, reflected a political bias: 87% of Democrats said the charges were very serious or somewhat serious, whereas 60% out of 10 GOP-leaning voters suggested the charges were overblown.
As ABC noted, the results seem to indicate that a significant number of Americans "may be waiting to see what precisely the indictment is connected to or what specific charges Trump will face" before they make up their minds.
The study, which was conducted between March 31 and April 1, 2023, reportedly included feedback from 593 adult Americans.