The Trump verdict is backfiring for Biden

There is little doubt that the whole purpose of putting former President Donald Trump on trial in New York City and elsewhere is to brand him as a convicted felon before the 2024 election . The early returns suggest that plan is backfiring in more ways than one.

My colleague Jeremiah Poff detailed the verdict's effect on Trump's fundraising numbers in the aftermath of the guilty verdict, including that around $52 million of the $141 million Trump's campaign raised in May came 24 hours after the verdict was announced. That $141 million is nearly as much as President Joe Biden raised in March and April combined.

But the windfall is benefiting GOP candidates down-ballot as well. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said his fundraising platforms have seen record highs. These numbers are erasing the concerns about Trump and the Republican National Committee lagging behind Biden and the Democratic National Committee in campaign funds.

The more important factor in this is the polling, though. After all, the whole point of this exercise is to try and taint Trump's name further to voters by labeling him a convicted felon through the entire election cycle. But the early returns suggest little to no change in the polling that has Biden allies so panicked behind the scenes.

Morning Consult's latest poll ran from May 31 (the date the verdict was announced) to June 2. It found that Trump was holding steady at 44%, as he had been for the past month. Biden, meanwhile, was down 2 points to 43%, which is around where he had been hovering for the past month. Rasmussen Reports found Trump down 2 points but still holding a 48%-43% lead.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

It appears, at least now in June, that this trial is not going to change people's opinions of Trump all that much. This wouldn't be a surprise: Trump has been made into a black hole of media attention since 2015. People have had nine years to form and cement their opinions of the man, with a hush money/campaign finance trial unlikely to add anything new to voters' calculations.

But that would be a loss for Biden, and it is undeniable that ramping up GOP voter and donor enthusiasm when Biden was enjoying a fundraising lead and suffering from enthusiasm problems with his base is also a loss for his campaign. There is a possibility that this could backfire for Democrats in a worse way than the 2020 impeachment of Trump, which Democrats ended up mostly ignoring on the campaign trail.