2024 wild card: Could Trump criminal trial verdict rock White House race?

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With closing arguments in former President Trump's criminal trial scheduled for early in the week ahead, a pending verdict in the historic case could have serious consequences in the 2024 election between the former president and President Biden.

Trump holds the slight edge right now both in national polling and in public opinion surveys in most of the crucial battleground states that will likely decide their election rematch.

However, Trump could potentially be convicted on some or all of the nearly three-dozen state felony charges he faces in his trial in New York City, which is the first in the nation's history for a former or current president.

Veteran Democratic pollster Chris Anderson told Fox News that he did not think "a guilty verdict would fundamentally change the landscape of the race." Longtime Republican pollster Neil Newhouse went even further, arguing that a Trump conviction "is unlikely to make any difference."

WHAT AMERICANS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE TRUMP TRIAL

Both pointed to the fact that "attitudes are so set in concrete" regarding both the Republican former president and his Democratic successor in the White House.

Trump is charged with falsifying business records in relation to payments during the 2016 election that he made to Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about