Former President Donald Trump's support in Republican presidential primary polls has surged since Democrat attorneys general began indicting him.
Trump, with 44% support at the time, held a 15-point lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the GOP primary field on March 27. Just three weeks later, his lead had increased by a further 32 points.
The main event in between those two scores was Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicting Trump for allegedly "falsifying New York business records in order to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election."
Since then, Trump has been indicted several more times.
Special counsel Jack Smith, appointed by the Justice Department, indicted Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents and for attempting to overturn the 2020 election results.
Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis accused Trump of trying to overturn the 2020 election results in the Peach State.
Nevertheless, Trump on Monday held a 50.6 point-lead over DeSantis in the RealClearPolitics average of polls.
Furthermore, the former president’s poll standing had risen from 44 points in late March to 54 points in late April, to 58 points in September, to 63 points on Monday.
Trump has not seen his support dip below 50% nationally since he first passed that mark on April 4.
"What has happened can only be called an enormous backfire for those Democrats and Never Trumpers who thought indicting Trump would bring him down," the Examiner’s Byron York wrote on Monday. "As far as the Republican polls are concerned, it has done just the opposite.
"Now, some Democrats and Never Trumpers believe that convicting Trump, at least once, will bring him down. Maybe they're right. But maybe they're not."
Trump, himself, has said the weaponization of justice against him is all a function of Democrats' efforts to keep him out of the White House.
"If I was in third or fourth place, or if I wasn't running — I'd be living the life of Riley — I wouldn't be here with you tonight, but I'd be living the life, beautiful houses all over the place," Trump told the South Dakota GOP convention Sept. 8 in a speech that aired live and in its entirety on Newsmax.
As for Trump's support in the polls, York said the indictments might not be the only reason.
"For one, he is running as an incumbent president, which, of course, he is not, but nevertheless, a lot of Republicans appear to accept him as the incumbent in the race,” York wrote. “He also has been president before, and many Republicans have a positive impression of his time in the White House. And Trump remains a unique performer on the campaign trail, a bigger personality than anyone pursuing him.
"Still, it appears to have been the indictments that were the booster rockets for Trump's present standing in the Republican race."
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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