Majority of Americans reject Trump’s immunity claim, including half of Republicans

Seventy per cent of American voters, and 48% of Republicans, reject Donald Trump’s claim to be immune from criminal prosecution for acts committed in office, a new poll said.

In the poll from Ipsos and Politico Magazine, just 11% backed the former president and presumptive Republican nominee’s claim, as expressed in his federal election subversion case that has reached the supreme court.

“The result is a positive sign for the constitutional sensibilities of the American public,” the Politico columnist and former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori wrote, pointing to a view widely held among law professors when he called “Trump’s argument for immunity … absurd as a matter of law, history and democratic logic.”

But the poll also produced what Khardori called a “sobering” poll result: nearly half of respondents (46%) did not trust the supreme court to issue “a fair and nonpartisan ruling” in the immunity case.

Aided by Senate Republicans, Trump appointed three right-wingers to the court in his four years in power.

The resulting court, tilted 6-3 to the right, has delivered major Republican victories including the removal of federal abortion rights and rulings on gun control, affirmative action and more.

Last month, the court stoked uproar when it said it would hear oral arguments over Trump’s immunity claim.

The decision delayed trial over four charges arising from Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, pushing the likely court date towards polling day this year.

The court also dismissed state challenges to Trump’s place on the ballot under the 14th amendment, a measure approved after the civil war, for inciting the January 6 insurrection.

The supreme court’s approval rating remains at