Careful what you wish for, Democrats. 

Democrats salivated for the opportunity to campaign on former President Trump's criminal convictions. He's a convicted felon. Guess what is happening? Trump is receiving more support than ever. 

This was pretty easy to predict for anyone paying attention. In this presidential election year, the more Donald Trump is indicted, the more support he receives in the polls. It turns out that Americans don't like lawfare being used against a former president and leading presidential candidate in a presidential election year. 

Voters don't like what they are seeing from Democrats. Democrat lawyers and prosecutors are targeting Trump to keep him busy with legal challenges and off the campaign trail. It stinks of election interference. 

Democrats tend to overplay their hand, though, and the hush money trial in Manhattan is the latest example. FAFO. According to the latest I&I/TIPP poll taken as Trump's trial convictions played out, the former president rose in the poll. 

The poll was taken from Wednesday, May 29, through Friday, May 31. The verdict against Trump in New York state court was rendered on Thursday, May 30. So a significant share of the 1,675 registered voters who took the national online I&I/TIPP Poll actually knew that Trump had been found guilty of 34 felony counts.

I think voters either just don't care about the guilty verdict on all counts or they are numb to the convictions. Donald Trump has been persecuted almost since he was elected and at a certain point, it is all baked into voter reactions. It's overkill. 

Both of the top two candidates have been president and have records to run on. Voters think back to Trump's presidency and say they want to go back to that. The only people who feel better now than four years ago are illegal aliens. I don't need a poll to tell me that.

The guilty verdicts increased Trump's support. 

In the head-to-head poll between President Joe Biden and Trump, it’s now a statistical toss-up, 41% to 41%. But that’s an improvement for Trump from May, when he trailed Biden by 2 percentage points in that month’s I&I/TIPP poll (42% Biden to 40% Trump). The June poll has a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points.

A statistical toss-up, eh? If Trump is destroying democracy, as I have been assured that he is doing by the Democrats, why isn't Biden out front by a giant leap after the verdicts? It's because even the voters who weren't paying a whole lot of attention to the trial in Manhattan realize how deeply unfair it was. If Trump was not running for re-election, it would have never been prosecuted. This was a part of the Get Trump agenda in deep blue Manhattan. It is where D.A. Bragg and Leticia James ran on a Get Trump agenda. It was all rigged from the jump. 

The most important finding in the poll is the one on Independent voters. They are the ones who decide elections, especially in battleground states. What do they say now? It's not even close. Trump easily wins 38% to 26% in a head-to-head matchup.

What about when third-party (Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.) and independent candidates enter the consideration? 

As one can guess, the totals for Biden and Trump shrink a bit with third-party challengers, but still show a 38% to 38% tie, with RFK Jr. at 10% (down from 12% in May), West at 1%, and Stein and “other” at 2%.

It's still a tie. 

Independents still look to favor Trump, no matter how you slice it. 

In May, 33% of independents supported Trump, 25% Biden, 18% RFK Jr. and 6% “other.” In June, that had become 31% Trump, 22% Biden, 18% RFK Jr., and 5% “other.” That shift among independents, who make up about 28% of the I&I/TIPP responses, seems to favor Trump.

This is just one poll but it is important to check because it shows results since the guilty verdicts came down. It will take more time for the dust to settle but this isn't going the way that Democrats hoped it would. Too bad, so sad. Not.