Trump top choice for president for nearly 60% of Republican primary voters, says new poll

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Donald Trump is leading in the 2024 Republican primary race despite his mounting legal trouble and indictments, a new poll has found.

At least 59 per cent of Republican voters said the former president would be their first choice if the GOP primary was held today, a poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal has found.

Mr Trump holds a 46-point lead over Florida governor Ron DeSantis – the former president's top opponent in the GOP primary race.

The new poll shows an 11 per cent jump in Mr Trump's popularity since April, when just 48 per cent of people supported him as the leading candidate.

The support for Mr Trump has substantially grown following his indictments, according to the newspaper, which polled 600 Republican primary voters at the end of August.

The 45th president has been indicted four times this year on allegations of mishandling classified documents, falsifying business records to make hush payments and his bid to overturn the 2020 presidential elections.

Mr Trump also faces federal charges in Georgia with efforts to reverse his 2020 election defeat in the state.

More than 60 per cent of Republican voters said each of the indictments were "politically motivated and without merit".

Nearly 78 per cent said Mr Trump’s actions after the 2020 election were "legitimate efforts to ensure an accurate vote", while 16 per cent said Mr Trump had illegally tried to block Congress from certifying the Georgia poll.

About 48 per cent of the people polled said the indictments made them more likely to vote for Mr Trump in next year's presidential elections.

In a hypothetical re-election between Mr Trump and president Joe Biden, the two candidates tied at 46 per cent with just eight per cent of responders undecided.

“When we talk about how twisted and bent reality has become, that’s a really good example of it, because if, in fact, this were any other time and place, this race would not be happening this way,” Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio told The Journal.

While Mr DeSantis polled 13 per cent, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley was 8 per cent of the responders' first choice.

Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie were at 5 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.