75 percent of Republicans want Trump to play prominent role in GOP: poll

Three-quarters of Republicans said they want former President Trump to play a prominent role in the Republican Party despite his second impeachment trial, according to a poll released on Monday — two days after his acquittal. 

A Quinnipiac University poll determined that 75 percent of Republican respondents expressed interest in Trump continuing to play a prominent role in the GOP, while 21 percent said they wouldn’t want that. 

Sixty percent of all Americans said they did not want Trump to have an important role in the Republican Party, including 96 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of independents. 

A majority of respondents, 55 percent, also said the former president should not be permitted to hold elected office in the future. Republicans again strayed from the majority, with 87 percent saying that Trump should be allowed to hold elected office. 

“He may be down, but he is certainly not out of favor with the GOP. Twice impeached, vilified by Democrats in the trial, and virtually silenced by social media… despite it all, Donald Trump keeps a solid foothold in the Republican Party,” Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a release.

The Quinnipiac University poll surveyed 1,056 adults Feb. 11-14 with a margin of error of 3 percentage points. 

Trump was widely expected to be acquitted after a majority of Republican senators voted that the trial was unconstitutional on Feb. 9 and was officially acquitted on Feb. 13. 

Seven Republican senators sided with Democrats by voting to convict Trump in the most bipartisan Senate impeachment trial results in history. But the Senate did not reach the two-thirds majority needed to convict. 

About half of respondents in the poll, at 51 percent, said they backed the Senate convicting Trump, including 92 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of independents. A large majority of Republicans, at 89 percent, said they were against convicting Trump.

The House impeached Trump in the last week of his presidency on allegations that he incited the mob that stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6. The riot led to the deaths of five people, including a Capitol Police officer, and scores of law enforcement injuries. 

A majority of respondents, at 54 percent, said they believe the former president is responsible for inciting the violence at the Capitol, and 68 percent said they did not think Trump did everything he could to stop the riot once it started.