Recent polling done by YouGov in association with The Economist finds that many Americans do not support the idea pushed nearly constantly by former President Donald Trump that he has become the victim of unfair treatment in the U.S. justice system. He currently faces four separate criminal cases from three prosecutors across four jurisdictions and is implicated in nearly 100 individual allegations of felonious criminal misconduct.
This polling was completed September 12. Asked how they feel Trump is being treated in the criminal justice system, 14 percent said “Equally to other people,” while 36 percent said “More leniently than other people.” Only 37 percent of overall respondents — so barely more than a third of Americans in general — said they believe Trump is facing treatment in court and from prosecutors that’s harsher than what most face. In other words, it’s simply clear that the rhetoric from Trump propagated on Truth Social or in any other context just isn’t paying off at the scale he might hope or claim, and running his 2024 campaign for president on claimed grievances around his criminal cases doesn’t exactly seem positioned to substantially boost his support.
In a recent letter to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) replying to his demands for insider information from her Trump investigation, Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis denounced any idea that Trump effectively should be treated differently than other potential and actual criminal defendants because of his political status, including as an active candidate for president.
“The criminal defendant about which you express concern was fully aware of the existence of the criminal investigation being conducted by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office at the time he announced his candidacy for President,” Willis told the Ohio Republican. “I have no doubt that many Americans are the subject of criminal investigations and prosecutions at any given moment. An announcement of a candidacy for elected office, whether President of the United States, Congress, or state or local office, is not and cannot be a bar to criminal investigation or prosecution. Any notion to the contrary is offensive to our democracy and to the fundamental principle that all people are equal before the law.”
