Republican pollster Brett Loyd said Wednesday that President Trump’s long-term approval rating likely will not be affected negatively by news of two of his former confidants being found guilty or pleading guilty in criminal probes on Tuesday.
“We might see his approval dip a couple points. This isn’t going to be something sustained,” Loyd, president of the Polling Company, told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons on “What America’s Thinking.” “I don’t foresee this being a lead into the election type of conversation that we should be having.”
“Every week something else is coming up that the news is making a giant story about,” he continued.
Loyd’s comments come after Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen on Tuesday pleaded guilty to charges of bank fraud, tax fraud and campaign finance law violations in a New York courtroom.
Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts total, including five counts of tax evasion and one count of making a false statement to a financial institution.
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort also made news Tuesday after he was found guilty on eight of 18 federal charges of bank and tax fraud in a Virginia courtroom. Judge T.S. Ellis III declared a mistrial on the remaining 10 counts.
Loyd said the developments are not issues voters care about, like the economy.
“We’re not talking about the economy. We’re not talking about issues that people care about. We’re talking about some one-off of a campaign staffer that was there with him two years ago,” he said.
— Julia Manchester
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