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The headline from this morning’s New York Times/Siena College poll is former President Donald Trump’s commanding 37 percentage-point national lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the rest of the GOP presidential field.
But the more revealing story in the survey might be the seven-in-10 Republican voters standing behind Trump amid the multiple investigations into the former president, as well as more confirmation about how Trump has remade today’s Republican Party in his own image.
According to the poll, 71% of GOP primary voters think Republicans should stand behind Trump amid the investigations and indictments he’s facing, compared with 22% who don’t think the Republican Party needs to stand behind Trump.
An equal 71% of GOP voters say Trump has not committed serious crimes, while 17% say he has.
And check out these results showing how Trump has transformed the party into his own image on Jan. 6, trade, entitlement programs and aid to Ukraine:
- 75% of GOP primary voters believe Trump was just exercising his right to contest the 2020 election regarding the aftermath of that race, versus 19% who believe he threatened democracy.
- 70% want to pay less attention to overseas matters, versus 26% who want to be more active in world affairs.
- 69% say America has lost out from increased trade because of job losses, versus 17% who think the U.S. has benefitted from increased trade.
- 62% believe America’s problems are so bad that the nation is in danger of failing, versus 26% who believe America isn’t in danger of failing.
- 59% want to keep Social Security and Medicare benefits as they are, versus 29% who say it's more important to take steps to reduce the budget deficit.
- 53% oppose providing additional military and economic aid to Ukraine, versus 44% who support it.
There’s also this finding: 65% of GOP voters say they’re more likely to support a candidate who focuses on restoring law and order in U.S. streets and on the border, versus 24% who are more likely to support a candidate who focuses on defeating the radical “woke” ideology in schools, media and culture.
And even regarding DeSantis’ dust-up with Disney over the corporation’s support for LGBTQ rights, the poll shows 38% of GOP primary voters are more likely to support a candidate who promises to fight corporations promoting “woke” ideology, versus 52% who are more likely to support a candidate believing the government should stay out of such matters.
The NYT/Siena poll was conducted July 23-27 of 932 likely GOP primary voters, and it has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.96 percentage points.