New poll finds 49% of independents and 15% of Republicans think Trump should end campaign after conviction

Half of registered voters said they did not think Trump should go to prison, the poll revealed

A new poll shows that nearly half of independent voters and some Republicans want Donald Trump to end his presidential campaign.

A Morningside Consult poll from Friday said that 49 percent of independent voters and 15 percent of Republican voters want Trump to end his 2024 bid after his felony conviction. However, just 8 percent of Trump supporters said they want his campaign to end. Their poll also demonstrated that 54 percent of voters approve of the historic verdict.

On Thursday, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of an election conspiracy that involved covering up a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose story of an affair threatened to derail his 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump’s sentencing is on 11 July, just days before the Republican National Convention where he will be named the official GOP presidential candidate.

The same poll indicated half of voters oppose a prison sentence for Trump. 69 per cent of voters think a fine would be appropriate, while 49 per cent think Judge Juan Merchan should place him on probation, according to the Morningside Consult poll.

Supporters of former president Donald Trump wave banners after Trump spoke at a press conference at Trump Tower the day after a jury found him guilty on all 34 counts in his hush money criminal trial. A new poll shows nearly half of independent voters think Trump should now end his presidential campaign (EPA)

President Joe Biden commented on the conviction on Friday, decrying his “reckless” attacks on the trial and insisting the verdict is evidence that the justice system works.

“Donald Trump was given every opportunity to defend himself,” he said, adding that the case against Trump had been brought in a state court, not a federal one, and was decided by an ordinary jury of “12 citizens, 12 Americans, 12 people like you” that was chosen “the same way every jury in America is chosen”.

Meanwhile, some of Trump’s die-hard supporters are calling for violence online in the wake of his conviction.

“Find the jurors. All of them. Take no prisoners,” wrote one user on a Trump-focused message board.

“Just give them the rope,” said another, in an explicit reference to lynching. “The time for talking has long gone. Let them swing outside the courthouse.”

Several prominent GOP politicians have also refused to accept the verdict, calling their ruling “rigged” and “corrupt.”