No matter the incessant, frenzied nature of his public commentary, many Americans still aren’t buying the insistence from former President Donald Trump that he’s some kind of saint as he faces criminal and civil proceedings in jurisdiction after jurisdiction.
Recent polling from YouGov and The Economist asked respondents if they believed what’s basically a core of the allegations made against Trump and his family business by New York state Attorney General Letitia James, and most registered voters did express belief. James’ case went to trial in recent days, though the presiding judge had already handed down a foundational finding that the former president perpetrated fraud. (There were remaining claims and evidently remaining questions on specific consequences.)
“Do you believe Donald Trump misreported the value of his properties on official documents to obtain favorable loans and tax benefits, or not?” respondents were asked, and 51 percent of registered voters answered in the affirmative. Among general respondents, the portion saying “yes” was 49 percent. In both these groups, the remaining respondents were split between uncertainty and disbelief, with significantly more in the “yes” category overall though the portions only barely reached — or didn’t quite reach — a majority.
Meanwhile, Trump is still raging. One of his latest bizarre claims is that his Florida property Mar-a-Lago is worth potentially $1.8 billion, an absurd statement on its face, since if true, the resort would be among the highest-value properties in the entire world. He also continues to target his opponents, like James, in highly personal terms, which led to a partial gag order after he named a clerk for the judge in those civil proceedings in belittling comments on social media. (The order applies to potential commentary about court staff.) Trump even posted an evident link to an Instagram account for that individual! And the many elected Republicans supporting him… do they expect to be taken seriously when they inevitably lecture about decency and respect for the institutions, or whatever they concoct next?
