Trump still Republican favorite after skipping GOP debate despite fraud charges: poll

Former President Donald Trump is still the top pick for the Republican presidential ticket despite skipping Wednesday’s primary debate, according to a poll commissioned exclusively for The Post. 

The post-debate survey of 1,303 people, conducted by Leger and released Thursday, found that 62% of GOP voters want to see the 77-year-old ex-commander-in-chief emerge as the party’s candidate.

The results also come just days after a Manhattan judge on Tuesday found Trump committed fraud by exaggerating the value of his wealth — and canceled his New York business licenses.

The 45th’s lead is undeniable, with support for Florida Gov. Ron Desantis coming in a distant second place, with just 10% of Republican voters preferring to see the 45-year-old lead the party.

Trump’s support even jumped 2 points since the first debate — which he also declined to attend, according to the poll.

“I’ve sort of kind of had to convince myself nothing’s gonna surprise me anymore with that with this individual, but I just think that there’s a strong segment of Republican voters that there’s not much that’s gonna sway them,” Leger Executive Vice President Andrew Enns told The Post.

“I suspect that they feel that there’s a lot of political motivation behind the accusations and charges and so they’re sticking to that sort of version of events and it’s going to be very difficult to move them off.”

Even more than a third (37%) of Democratic-leaning voters admit the firecracker former president will be the nominee facing off against President Biden in 2024.

When it comes to a Trump versus President Biden match-up, almost half (43%) of those polled believe the indicted ex-president would beat the 80-year-old current commander-in-chief. Just 32% believe Biden will prevail while 26% are unsure.

However, if Trump were to be found guilty or imprisoned before Election Day, his support would plunge — with just 36% of those surveyed believing he would win against Biden.

“I guess that gives you a pretty good sense of the hard rock bottom base,” Enns noted.

Meanwhile, as the country inches closer to primaries, support for DeSantis — Trump’s main rival — has wobbled — much to the surprise of Enns, who thought the Florida governor was a stronger participant in the latest debate compared to the first.

Only 14% of Republican-leaning viewers saw the Sunshine State leader as the winner of the debate, compared to 21% after the first debate last month.

The once-formidable foe of Trump crawled behind entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

A little over a quarter (26%) of GOP voters polled believe Ramaswamy won the second primary debate, while 15% believe Haley emerged victorious.

“I thought he [DeSantis] might do a bit better to be honest, because I thought he was actually a little more in the debate … Part of me wonders whether or not there were a couple of more policy issues that maybe he got himself kind of caught up in,” Enns said.

The overall debate was “chaotic,” Enns said, with candidates repeatedly shouting over one another and former New Jersey Governor Christy bizarrely calling Trump “Donald Duck” for skipping the debate.

Amid the insanity, Ramaswamy emerged as the clear victor for the second debate in a row in the eyes of GOP viewers.

After the August debate, 23% of self-identified GOP voters said Ramaswamy, 38, won.

“In August was pretty aggressive — kind of getting in people’s face a little bit. And in September, he you still pretty active but less in your face or aggressive he’s kind of, I would say, a little more polite,” Enns said.

Ramaswamy’s consistent support could point to a swelling of confidence from Trump’s camp because the former president didn’t attend the debate, Enns theorized.

“When you speculate further out — now if there was ever a scenario that Donald Trump doesn’t actually make it to the primary and sort of frees up all those voters, maybe now this thing gets interesting.”

Overall, 28% of those surveyed watched at least some of the debate live, with 36% of Republicans tuning in — ranking nearly identically to the viewership of last month’s event.

Leger’s survey, weighted according to age, gender, region, education, ethnicity, number of people in the household and past vote, had a 2.3 percentage point margin of error.