Americans split on whether Trump should go to prison for felony conviction

By the numbers: About half (48%) of American adults surveyed said they believe that Trump should serve time in prison, and 50% said he shouldn't.

• Among Democrats, 78% said that Trump should go to prison while 22% said he shouldn't.
• Of Republicans surveyed, 86% said they believe Trump shouldn't spend time behind bars, with only 12% saying that he should.
• Independents were close to evenly split, with 50% believing Trump should go to prison and 46% opposing that sort of punishment.

Zoom out: The poll also found a partisan divide in views of Hunter Biden's recent felony conviction, but the results are less starkly divided.

• 46% of U.S. adults approve of Trump's conviction and 60% approve of Hunter Biden's conviction, per the poll.
• While four out of five Democrats approve of Trump's conviction, 59% said the same of Hunter Biden's conviction.
• Yet while only 14% of Republicans approve of Trump's conviction, 71% approved of the president's son's.

State of play: Trump's hush money conviction and other pending criminal cases have reverberated throughout the 2024 race, with President Biden repeatedly emphasizing it in his campaign.

• Trump, who maintains his innocence, has touted the case and verdict as evidence of a "rigged" system against him.
• Sentencing in the case has been delayed until September, as Trump's legal team seeks to overturn the conviction.

Methodology: This AP-NORC poll was conducted June 20-24, 2024 using the AmeriSpeak® Panel. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 1,088 adults.

• The margin of sampling error is ±4.0 percentage points at the 95% confidence level among all adults.

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