If failed former president Donald Trump and his most fervent supporters actually thought that his indictment in Manhattan last month on 34 counts of falsifying business records would boost him in the polls, new data suggests the opposite has happened.
That was the topic on “Morning Joe” Tuesday, with co-host Willie Geist noting that Trump’s approval rating is now in the 20s, meaning he’s basically in “fringe candidate” territory since he was charged.
That led fellow co-host Mika Brzezinski to remark, “Republican senators want him to stay away from the races in 2024 following losses by his hand-picked candidates during the last cycle. If his legal issues don’t take him off the ballot, maybe his poll numbers will; a new survey shows he is losing support rapidly, dropping like a rock.”
Host Joe Scarborough concurred:
“His favorability ratings have never been great, nor the job approval ratings, but if you look at the favorability ratings, when we sit here talking about all the things he is doing and wondering why it doesn’t seem to catch up to him, he now has a favorability rating that’s collapsed down to 25 percent. Actually lost more percentage points post-indictment.”
He added, “It is all bad news for him, especially the fact that only one in four Americans now have a favorable impression of him.”
Geist summed up the polling numbers by noting that while Trump might be able to win the 2024 GOP presidential nomination (though that remains to be seen), he would be toast in a general election.
“25 percent — you’re dipping into being a fringe political candidate. 25 percent is a terrible number if you’re trying to win a general election again.”
