The prospect of Donald Trump going into November's presidential election with a rap sheet that contains a criminal conviction is a preeminent concern among some of his closest advisers fearing a wipeout when the votes are tallied.
According to a report from Rolling Stone, insiders counseling the former president on his third bid for the Oval Office are taking very seriously multiple polls that show a Trump conviction would set in motion an exodus of conservative and independent voters who have told pollsters that they absolutely will not vote for a convicted Trump.
As the report notes, Trump's people view a conviction — any conviction — as a "looming disaster."
Rolling Stone reports that starting last year Trump's staff "started noticing an ominous trend in independent polling and in internal Republican survey data: A significant share of swing voters in key states — even some Republicans — say they would not want to vote for a freshly-convicted criminal."
Adding that the former president has disregarded warnings, Rolling Stone adds that the former president's staffers aren't so sure his instincts are on the money.
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According to one insider who wished to remain anonymous and has been advising the former president about 2024 "[Late last year], I mentioned to him how the polls were saying a conviction would hammer him with some of the voters he needs to keep in his column to win. I said it was something to take very seriously, but not necessarily a death blow … But in my own thoughts, I kept thinking, ‘It’d be a f**king disaster.’ But we’ll find out, I guess. Hopefully, people are lying to the pollsters.”
Another Trump aide is worried that the campaign isn't taking the bad news in the polling to heart, with Rolling Stone reporting, "... they can’t shake the feeling that one day they’ll look back on this polling trend as a bright-red warning sign — one that is comparable to the foreboding signs that Trump’s 2016 opponent saw for months before her [Hillary Clinton] defeat."
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