UK-based conservatives are still “very much behind” former US president Donald Trump and are likely more “fired up” following his criminal convictions, the chairman of a Republican group has said.
Greg Swenson, from Republicans Overseas UK, told the PA news agency he received notes from members expressing outrage at Thursday’s guilty verdicts.
Democrats Abroad UK said the White House had asked party members not to comment on the case and to let the law run its course, but a spokeswoman said: “Nobody is above the law.”
A New York jury found Mr Trump guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who said the two had sex.
Asked what the verdicts would do for the Republican Party, Mr Swenson said: “If anything it’s going to galvanise. Trump is raising a tonne of money right now because of what happened.
“I think it will also help with independents and the undecided that they’re seeing this real weaponsiation of the justice system.
“I just find it amazing that Democrats are saying with a straight face that ‘no one’s above the law’ and ‘this is equal justice’ – it’s completely crazy.
“It’s OK not to like Trump, half the country doesn’t like him, I get that, but half the country does like him.”
Addressing whether it would help Mr Trump win the upcoming election, Mr Swenson added: “We don’t have a whole lot of historical metrics to compare because it’s never happened so I can’t really predict… but I do think there’s the potential here for people to actually get behind him because of what’s happened.”
Questioned on what UK-based Republicans made of Thursday’s verdicts, Mr Swenson told PA: “I get a lot of feedback from our people – and there are some ‘never-Trumpers’ in there.
“I constantly get feedback of ‘how can you support this guy?’ and ‘he’s terrible’ – so I don’t think it changes a lot of minds.
“It might get people a little bit more fired up – and I’ve got a couple of notes from people today saying ‘this is outrageous’ and ‘I’m trying to donate but I can’t donate because I don’t have a US address’.
“But I don’t think it’ll flip the ‘never-Trumper’, obviously, if they haven’t been flipped already.
“I think the UK Republicans already have their views – but most of the people, the Republicans in the UK, are still very much behind him.”
Asked whether he believed Republicans Overseas UK would gain more members due to the publicity of the trial, Mr Swenson said: “Yeah, given the publicity and the importance of the election, and the real unpopularity of President Biden – I think people are excited because they see the binary choice.”
He told PA the numbers backing the former President in the upcoming election would likely get “even better” if he is jailed on July 11, adding that it had “backfired” on the Democrats.
Mr Swenson said: “I think the numbers would get even better for Trump.
“When he (the judge) was threatening Trump with jail time earlier in the trial for contempt, Trump was just teasing him – he wanted to go to jail, that would have been another five points.
“I’m not happy about all this. I wish it wasn’t the case, I wish the Democrats would just let the voters vote.
“But this has hurt them, it’s backfired on them for sure.”
