Trump allies confident 'victim card' will carry him from criminal conviction to November

Former President Donald Trump's allies are confident he could skate past a criminal conviction in his hush money trial by playing the "victim card" until the election while the appeals process plays out.

The former president's pollsters believe they can spin a conviction – which even Trump seems to believe is likely – in his favor because they say the public has largely not paid close attention to the trial, and they argue that a large number of Americans believe the criminal prosecutions against him are politically motivated, reported Politico.

“We’ve got 66 percent telling us that politics have played a role in it, only 28 say ‘no role,’” said Trump pollster Jim McLaughlin. “The interesting part about that is, even 27 percent of Democrats are saying ‘politics played a role in the indictments.’”

A verdict could come any day now that the case has been handed to jurors to deliberate, but his allies believe he can weather a conviction the same way he managed to survive multiple bankruptcies, two impeachments, the "Access Hollywood" tape and a 2020 election loss.

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“I think most people think this jury will indict Trump or convict Trump, and they’ll end up going to the appellate courts to resolve this. But I think it’s made the president stronger,” said GOP strategist Dave Carney. “Since ’15, he’s been a victim, played the victim card — Russia, Russia, Russia, all this stuff, and now in full high-D, 5G TV, he confirmed that.”

“The grand plans to use all these court cases to throw sand in the gears of Trump failed,” Carney added. “The trial itself? The only thing that could have been better was if it was actually on TV and people got to see firsthand.”

So long as Trump isn't sent to prison, he would be free to resume his campaign instead of dozing off in a courtroom, especially now that his cases in Georgia and Florida seem to be delayed indefinitely and the U.S. Supreme Court could make his D.C. election subversion case and the others vanish by granting him broad immunity.

“It’s not Teflon Don, because they were able to bring these charges," said David Urban, a Trump campaign adviser in 2016 and 2020. "I think it just shows the American people. It’s further proof, I would say, of the lunacy of these efforts. Nobody wants to be convicted. If you’re convicted, Democrats will use that as a cudgel no matter what. But I think the president’s legal team has done a masterful job at exposing the lawfare for what it is.”