Most view Trump hush money probe as political hit job: poll

Most Americans think Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s investigation of former President Donald Trump over “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels is a political attack, according to a new national poll.

The Quinnipiac University survey found that 62% said the grand jury inquiry has been “mainly motivated by politics,” while just 32% said the probe was “mainly motivated by the law.”

The poll also found that 93% of Republicans and 70% of independents believed Bragg’s probe was politically motivated, while only 29% of Democrats said the same.

Two-thirds of Democrats (66%) said they thought the liberal DA was motivated by the law, compared to just 26% of independents and 5% of Republicans.

Bragg’s office has paused the grand jury probe for at least another month, The Post reported Wednesday, after rumors that the 76-year-old Trump would soon be indicted swirled for much of the past two weeks.

A source familiar with the case said the recess was pre-planned for the Passover and Easter holidays, as well as a spring break for city public schools.

At issue is a $130,000 payment Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to Daniels weeks before the 2016 presidential election — apparently to keep the adult film star quiet about her claims Trump had an affair with her in 2006.

The case rests on an untested legal theory that would lead to charges against the former president for allegedly falsifying business records to conceal a violation of federal campaign finance rules — in this case, the payment by Cohen and Trump’s alleged reimbursement of him.

If convicted, Trump could face up to four years in a state prison.

With Trump seeking a second non-consecutive term in the White House, a majority of Americans (57%) say criminal charges should disqualify him from holding office again.

That number includes 88% of Democrats and 55% of independents, but only 23% of Republicans.

Another 38% said criminal charges would not be disqualifying, including 75% of Republicans, 36% of independents and 8% of Democrats.

Despite skepticism of Bragg’s motives, 55% of Americans also said the hush money allegations against Trump are either “very” (32%) or “somewhat” serious (23%). Another 42% said the allegations were either “not too serious” (16%) or “not serious at all” (26%).

Trump took to social media on March 18 and claimed he would be arrested three days later on charges stemming from the affair, leading to a surge in donations to his 2024 presidential campaign.

He also caught flak last week for threatening “death and destruction” if the charges were handed down, posting a picture of himself on Truth Social aiming a baseball bat at Bragg’s head. The post was later deleted.

The Quinnipiac poll found 69% of Americans believe the social media posts were motivated by Trump’s concerns about himself, as opposed 24% who say he was motivated by concerns about democracy.

“Yes, say Americans, it was all about him and not the country’s well-being when Trump proclaimed he was targeted for arrest. And, yes he should be forever banished from office if he is charged as a criminal,” said Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Molloy.

The former president leads Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 52% to 42% in a hypothetical head-to-head 2024 Republican primary matchup among registered GOP voters and Republican-leaning independents.

Trump also remains neck-and-neck with 2020 rival Joe Biden, with the current president beating the former president 48% to 46% among registered voters.

Those figures are reversed when Biden is pitted against DeSantis, with the 44-year-old Florida governor leading the 80-year-old Democratic incumbent.

A majority of voters say Trump (65%) and Biden (54%) are dishonest, while just 40% say the same of DeSantis. On the other hand, 41% of voters say Biden and DeSantis are honest, but only 29% say the same about Trump.

Biden’s favorability and job approval numbers were also low — 37% and 38% respectively. Another 56% of voters said they had an unfavorable view of Biden, while 57% disapproved of his performance in office.

The poll found a majority of voters disapprove of Biden’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (52%), his foreign policy (57%), and his handling of the US economy (60%).

Two-thirds of Americans (66%) also said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping will escalate the war in Ukraine, with 80% referring to Putin as a war criminal.

Americans are almost evenly split over US involvement in the war, with 33% saying the nation is doing too much to help, 24% saying it is doing too little, and 23% saying it is doing the right amount.

More than half of Republicans (52%) believe the US is doing more than it should to aid the war effort, whereas 53% of Democrats believe the nation is doing the right amount to help Ukraine.

The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,788 US adults from March 23 through March 27. The survey has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.3 percentage points.

The margin of error on questions asked of 1,600 registered voters was plus-or-minus 2.5 percentage points, while the margin of error on questions of 671 GOP primary voters was plus-or-minus 3.8 percentage points.