New polling from Ipsos conducted in association with ABC News found a large majority of respondents generally rejecting former President Donald Trump as he makes another bid for the White House and faces an unfolding criminal case in New York, besides threats of further charges elsewhere, including from the Justice Department and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Georgia.
Asked if they had a favorable opinion of Trump, only 25 percent of respondents answered in the affirmative, while 61 percent shared an unfavorable view of the former president. This metric is distinct from that of job approval, which, as its contours might suggest, is generally only asked about political figures actually in office. On the same question, Joe Biden was doing way, way better than Trump, with 34 percent of respondents sharing a favorable view and 48 percent an unfavorable perspective. Thus, the gap between the portion favorably viewing Trump and those, well, not was 36 percentage points, while for Biden, it was just 14 percent.
In the new polling from Ipsos, most respondents were also generally in support of the criminal case against Trump in New York, with majorities saying both that the charges were either very or somewhat serious and that Trump, in fact, intentionally committed illegal acts. Trump is accused of dozens of felony offenses in connection to alleged falsifications of business records to cover up reimbursements for the hush money infamously given to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. (There are a lot of layers to what unfolded.) Trump will also soon be on trial in a civil case from writer E. Jean Carroll alleging an incident of sexual assault by the ex-president in the 1990s.
