Trump’s Trial Has Already Damaged the Office of the Presidency

Now that the jury holds the fate of former president Donald Trump in its hands, we can pause to more broadly assess the meaning of his trials. Observers (this one included) have followed every cross-examination tactic and surprise witness but at the cost of overlooking the trial’s larger blow to our political and constitutional norms.

In the short term, polls suggest that even a guilty verdict will have little effect on Trump’s political standing. A Quinnipiac poll reports that a conviction would make only 6 percent of self-identified Trump voters less likely to vote for him. With Trump wrapping up the Republican nomination during his prosecution and leading in polls nationally and in six of the seven battleground states, the trials may have even helped him politically (though they might cost him in the general election).

About the Author

John Yoo

John Yoo is the Thomas W. Smith Senior Fellow at the Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin; Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley; and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a co-author of the just-released two-volume American Constitutional Law (Routledge, 2026).

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Now that the jury holds the fate of former president Donald Trump in its hands, we can pause to more broadly assess the meaning of his trials. Observers (this one included) have followed every cross-examination tactic and surprise witness but at the cost of overlooking the trial’s larger blow to our political and constitutional norms.

In the short term, polls suggest that even a guilty verdict will have little effect on Trump’s political standing. A Quinnipiac poll reports that a conviction would make only 6 percent of self-identified Trump voters less likely to vote for him. With Trump wrapping up the Republican nomination during his prosecution and leading in polls nationally and in six of the seven battleground states, the trials may have even helped him politically (though they might cost him in the general election).

About the Author

John Yoo

John Yoo is the Thomas W. Smith Senior Fellow at the Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin; Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley; and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a co-author of the just-released two-volume American Constitutional Law (Routledge, 2026).