Trump's Indictment Is Already Boosting Him in the 2024 GOP Primary

Donald Trump is cashing in on his indictment—and seeing his poll numbers rise.

The former president, who is scheduled to be arraigned in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, has raised more than $8 million in the four days since he was indicted, according to his campaign.

That’s roughly double what Trump raised in the two full weeks after he announced his 2024 bid. And while the haul pales in comparison to some of Trump’s biggest fundraising days during his presidency, it’s the most he’s raised during his 2024 campaign.

Trump thanked his supporters for their donations in a Tuesday email—one of dozens of fundraising pleas his campaign has sent out in recent days.

“As I will be out of commission for the next few hours, I want to take this moment to THANK YOU for all of your support,” he said. “I am blown away by all of the donations, support, and prayers we have received.”

Trump’s poll numbers have also jumped in the past week. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in the wake of Trump’s indictment found him leading the GOP field with 48% support to just 19% for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, with all other potential rivals polling in the single digits. In March, the same pollster found Trump leading DeSantis by a narrower 44% to 30%.

And Trump leads DeSantis by 42% to 29% in a new poll of early-voting New Hampshire from Saint Anselm College that was conducted last week, after Trump said he was going to be indicted, but before he was actually indicted. DeSantis actually led Trump in a January poll of the state from the University of New Hampshire.

This pattern isn’t new. The GOP base has rallied to Trump every time he’s faced investigation or legal jeopardy. His poll numbers jumped among Republicans during both of his impeachment trials, and his biggest fundraising days of the 2024 campaign before this past week were after the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago home for classified information.

And the wall-to-wall coverage of Trump’s indictment has squeezed DeSantis and all of his other foes out of the news cycle, while helping Trump rally Republicans against what he’s deemed the latest political “witch hunt” against him.

This doesn’t mean that Trump’s legal woes will help him in the general election: A new CNN/SSRS poll found that 60% of Americans approve of Trump’s indictment, and a majority of Americans said that criminal charges should disqualify Trump from running for president in a Quinnipiac University poll released last week. But it’s clearly given him a boost in his quest to win the GOP nomination.