Most Americans want to see Trump pardoned: poll

Former President Donald Trump remained the far-and-away 2024 Republican presidential frontrunner and a majority of Americans said they would like to him pardoned, according to a new poll.

Even after his federal indictment last week on 37 felony counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents, 59% of Republicans would choose Trump in a GOP primary — and he would beat President Biden in a general election 45-39, according to a Harvard-Harris poll released Friday.

“Americans remain politically split 50-50 but just about 100% are unhappy with the direction of the country, the economy, and their political leaders,” said Mark Penn, co-director of the Harvard CAPS / Harris Poll “Biden’s approval is frozen in place despite the debt ceiling deal and a recovering stock market; yet Trump’s numbers are also unshaken after an unprecedented federal indictment.”

Trump faces a maximum of 400 years in federal prison if he’s convicted on all counts, and slapped with the maximum sentence for each count.

The poll found that while 58% of Americans found the federal case against Trump strong, 53% said they would support a pardon in the name of national unity.

Four out of five Republicans supported a pardon, with 48% of Independents and 30% of Democrats also in favor.

Trump’s nearest rival in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had the backing of 14% of those surveyed.

Former Vice President Mike Pence came in third with 8% support — doubling his approval from voters over the same period last month.

Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, and Vivek Ramaswamy a biopharmaceutical entrepreneur, rounded out the top five.

Should Trump — who has also been indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over hush-money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election — leave the race, his voters would overwhelmingly break to DeSantis, the survey found. If that scenario plays out, the Florida governor would lead the field with 41% support.

The poll was taken June 14-15 and surveyed 2,090 registered voters.