A new poll shows a majority of Americans believe the criminal charges former President Donald Trump is facing should disqualify him from running for president again.

The Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, a day before a New York grand jury voted to acquit Trump, concluded 57% of American adults believe he should be disqualified in the event of criminal charges, while 38% said they he should not. The vast majority of Democrats — 88% — 55% of independents and 23% of Republicans agreed he should be disqualified, while 75% of Republicans disagreed. 

However, when it comes to the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into alleged hush money payments made by Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, the poll found 62% of Americans believe the case “is mainly motivated by politics." That number includes 93% of Republicans and 70% of independents.

Trump is the first president to be charged with a crime. He has denied all wrongdoing.

The results were similar to those of another poll released earlier this week by NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist University, which found 56% of Americans believe the multiple investigations are fair, while 31% considered them to be a “witch hunt.” The NPR/PBS/Marist poll also found 46% believe Trump has done something illegal, 29% believe Trump did something unethical but not illegal, and 23% believe he did nothing wrong at all.

As for Trump’s rhetoric surrounding the investigation, 69% of Americans, including 34% of Republicans, believe the former president was “mainly acting out of concerns for himself” when he speculated he was going to be arrested and pushed his supporters to protest and “take our country back." Only 24% of registered voters believe he was mainly acting out of concerns about democracy.

"Yes, say Americans, it was all about him and not the country's well-being when Trump proclaimed he was targeted for arrest,” Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a release. “And, yes he should be forever banished from office if he is charged as a criminal."

While the former president’s favorability rating among registered voters has risen from 31% to 36% since a December Quinnipiac poll that marked his lowest favorability rating since 2015, his unfavorable numbers largely stayed steady, dropping a percentage point to 58%.

The poll released Wednesday surveyed 1,600 self-identified registered voters between March 23 and 27, including 671 Republican and Republican-leaning voters. The margin of error for all registered voters was 2.5 percentage points and 3.8 percentage points for Republicans.

Over 70% of Republicans also believe Trump “had a mainly positive impact on their party,” and 79% considered themselves supporters of the Make America Great Again, or MAGA, movement.

Looking ahead to 2024

When it comes to the GOP nomination for the White House next year, Trump’s likely top primary challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, continues to poll well behind him among Republican and Republican-leaning voters. 

DeSantis, who hasn’t announced a run for president, was the top choice of 33% of voters surveyed, while Trump scored 47%; former Vice President Mike Pence had the support of 5%, with former Ambassador to the United Nations Gov. Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor, close behind at 4%. No other candidate garnered more than 1%.

"Is the raucous Trump political resurrection adrift? Not in the least," Malloy said. “DeSantis appears to be treading water and the long list of 'wannabes' and 'could bes' are barely staying afloat.”

A separate NPR/PBS/Marist poll released Monday found that, while 76% of Republicans want him to be president again, 41% of white evangelical Christians did not. A Morning Consult poll released Tuesday queried 3,500 potential Republican primary voters and showed they preferred Trump to DeSantis 52% to 26%. 

President Joe Biden was neck-and-neck with both potential general election rivals in the Quinnipiac poll, topping Trump 48% to 46% and trailing DeSantis 48% to 46%. Only 37% of all registered voters viewed Biden favorably and 56% viewed him unfavorably.

In the Quinnipiac poll, DeSantis scored a 36% favorability rating, with 39% viewing him unfavorably and 24% not having heard enough about him to form an opinion.

Confidence in the banking system

Quinnipiac found a slim majority of Americans — 55% — have a lot of confidence or some confidence in the country’s banking system, while 43% have “not too much confidence” or “not much confidence at all.”

But 77% have some degree of confidence that the banks they use are keeping their money secure.

The poll comes in the wake of a series of bank failures and turmoil in the banking system over the last few weeks, with federal regulators taking over the 16th and 29th largest banks in the country.