Is Trump unstoppable?
After being indicted on 37 federal charges, he's still trouncing his GOP opponents
Back in the good old days, when only a few politicians were called out for breaking the laws while others largely got away with it — if you were convicted in a court of law, or charged with serious crimes related to your job, it would have ended your career.
Nowadays, being indicted on 37 federal counts, including espionnage, doesn’t even affect your poll numbers. Not to mention two impeachments and being found liable in a civil suit of sexual abuse. Or stoking a failed coup attempt.
The latest poll numbers after Trump’s indictment say that Trump would still win the GOP nomination by a landslide, according to FiveThirtyEight (which is not my favorite source, as I’ve tweeted about before, but the numbers reflect an average of other polls such as Ipsos, etc.).
Over 53% of Republican voters would still vote for Trump, with DeSantis staying at around 20% and the others in the single digits, staying about the same or slightly going up or down in the polls. Unless something changes, he’ll coast to the nomination.
That’s not all. 45% of likely voters think the indictment against Trump is politically motivated. Even though he admitted to what he’s being charged with, both publicly and behind closed doors.
And in a potential match-up between the incumbent president and disgraced, twice-impeached, newly-indicted former President, Trump is ahead in 4 of 7 polls cited by FiveThirtyEight, tied in two of them, and losing to Biden in only 1 of 7 polls. Which represented a post-indictment GAIN for Trump in 3 out of the 7 polls. In other words, Trump could very likely win against Biden.
If being found liable of sexual abuse doesn’t derail Trump, if being indicted on 37 federal counts doesn’t derail him, why should we think getting convicted on any of the counts would make any difference?
Unless Biden changes course and gives people something convincing to vote for — which after over 2 years as president already seems unlikely — or the Democratic Party comes to their senses and allows for a fair primary process that could pick a candidate whose approval ratings languish in the 30s and 40s — things are looking pretty bleak right now.
People know who Trump is by now, and yet he’s leading the pack by a huge amount in the GOP race. Biden would lose or barely squeak by on the popular vote, and as we’ve seen before the Electoral College system is often favorable Republicans in close races.
There’s over a year before the general election, but everything suggests that we’re in for a Biden-Trump match-up. With almost half of the country thinking the charges against Trump are politically motivated, and post-indictment polls show he’s still going strong, I hope you’ll forgive me for thinking things look grim.
What can realistically shake up the race between now and then to prevent Trump from retaking the White House and destroying what little is left of our democracy? We need someone who actually knows possible answers to this question, and isn’t so beholden to the corrupt Democratic establishment that they will support Biden come hell or high water — damn the consequences for the country — to act before it’s too late.