This 'stunning and depressing' Trump trend isn’t a good look for America: columnist

A 34-count felony indictment, allegations or rape and other crimes has done nothing to diminish Donald Trump’s popularity.

In fact, as the former ’s legal troubles continue to grow, so does his popularity.

Trump has gained more than seven percentage points in the polls among likely Republican voters over the last two months, according to 538’s most recent polling average (from 44.8 percent March 5 to 52 percent May 4).

Trump’s rise in the polls amid ongoing legal issues appears to defy political gravity. Many political candidacies have been sunk for less.

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Columnist Nicholas Goldberg writes for The Los Angeles Times that Trump led Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis 57 percent to 31 percent among Republican and Republican leaning independent voters in a a Yahoo News-YouGov poll conducted shortly after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted the former president over alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.

DeSantis in March led Trump in the same poll.

“It’s a stunning and depressing display of the lowering of national expectations, a remarkable nadir we’ve reached, that a candidate accused of multiple criminal acts is a perfectly credible contender for the presidency,” Goldberg writes.

Trump’s also got a fundraising boost following his indictment.

“It’s true, of course, that he hasn’t yet been convicted of anything; Carroll’s sexual assault allegations are for the moment just allegations, as are the New York grand jury’s 34 felony counts. Trump, who has denied wrongdoing, deserves — in the courtroom, anyway — the same presumption of innocence that any accused person is entitled to,” Goldberg writes.

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“But it’s shocking nevertheless that in the outside world the reaction of Trump supporters has been a deafening ‘So what! Who cares?’”

Trump has denied wrongdoing and alleged that the prosecutions he faces are politically motivated. In a fundraising email he asserted “This witch hunt, like all the others, will only BACKFIRE on Biden.”

“So how did we get to such a point in our politics? Wouldn’t such allegations have been instantly disqualifying in a previous era?” Goldberg writes.

Goldberg notes that Richard Nixon’s poll numbers tanked after revelations over Watergate surfaced, and former Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.) withdrew from the 1998 race after he was accused of an extra-marital affair with model Donna Rice. Joe Biden also withdrew from the 1988 race over a plagiarizing scandal.

“What accounts for his seeming invulnerability?” Goldberg writes.

“Partly it‘s just the je ne sais quoi of Trump: his hard-to-explain, sui generis brand of persecution politics, the tactical brilliance with which he’s persuaded his conspiracy-minded followers that he’s a long-suffering victim of repeated, unfair, politically motivated ‘witch hunts.’"

“Even those supporters who see his flaws have long since accepted him for who he is: a norm-breaking huckster with insatiable personal appetites, a self-serving attitude toward public office and an unhealthy disdain for the rules. They’ve factored that in.”