New polls from ABC News and CBS News conducted in the days since Donald Trump’s federal indictment became public suggest that most Americans see a security risk in the former president’s actions and consider the charges to be serious.
But neither poll suggests much movement in overall views of Trump, particularly among Republicans. Both surveys also find a significant share concerned that the charges are politically motivated, though that view is largely driven by Republicans.
According to an ABC News/Ipsos poll, fielded June 9-10, 61% of Americans said the federal charges Trump faces are very or somewhat serious, while 28% said they are not serious. Majorities of Democrats (91%) and independents (63%) said the charges are serious, while 38% of Republicans felt the same way.
About half the respondents said they saw the charges against Trump as politically motivated (47%), while 37% did not and 16% said they weren’t sure. Republicans overwhelmingly viewed the charges as political (80%), while most Democrats (71%) said they were not politically motivated.
Thirty-one percent of respondents said they have a favorable view of Trump, similar to where he stood in another ABC/Ipsos poll earlier in the spring (29% favorable in a survey fielded March 31-April 1).
The CBS News/YouGov poll found that 69% of Americans feel it would be a security risk if Trump “did have documents regarding US nuclear systems or military plans in his home after leaving office,” while 31% said that would not be a risk.
But the public is split over whether the national security risk (38%) or political motivations behind the indictment (38%) are a bigger concern, with 23% saying they are concerned about both issues.
Per the CBS poll, among likely Republican primary voters, far fewer saw Trump’s possible possession of nuclear and military documents as a security risk (just 38% said so). In contrast, 76% said political motivations were a bigger issue than the national security risk, 12% said they were more concerned about security and 12% said both.
Notably, just 7% of likely GOP primary voters said the indictment was likely to worsen their view of Trump, while 61% said it was unlikely to change their view of the former president, and 14% said it could change it for the better. About 1 in 6 (18%) said it depends on what they learn in the coming weeks.
Read more about the criminal case against Donald Trump here.
