Nearly half of Americans believe Trump should suspend 2024 campaign: poll

Almost half of Americans surveyed in a new poll believe that former President Donald Trump should suspend his presidential campaign as a result of his indictment related to a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. 

Trump, 76, was arraigned in a Manhattan courtroom last week on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against the 45th president centers on an alleged scheme to orchestrate illegal “catch and kill” payments in an attempt to suppress negative stories about him during the 2016 presidential election that continued while he was in office. 

An ABC News/Ipsos poll released on Sunday found that 48% of Americans think Trump should suspend his White House bid following the indictment.

In comparison, when asked the same question before Trump’s arraignment, 43% said the former president should halt his campaign. 

The more recent poll also found that 53% believe Trump’s actions were intentionally illegal. 

Only 20% of respondents said that they think Trump did nothing wrong. 

Eleven percent answered that while they think he acted improperly, it was not intentionally illegal.

With the indictment now unsealed, 52% of respondents view the charges as serious, an increase of 2 percentage points from last week, while 39% do not view the 34 felony counts as serious. 

In the post-arraignment poll, 45% of Americans believe that Trump should be charged with a crime, an increase of 5 percentage points from last week, and 32% said the ex-commander-in-chief shouldn’t face charges.

Trump and numerous Republican lawmakers have accused Bragg’s case of being politically motivated, a claim which 47% of those polled agree with. Only 32% said politics did not play a role in the decision to charge Trump. 

The ABC News/Ipsos poll surveyed 566 US adults and was conducted between April 6 and April 7. It has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.