FACT CHECK: Marc Thiessen Falsely Claims Majority of Republicans Want Nominee Other than Trump

CLAIM: Marc Thiessen, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, said “the majority of Republicans want someone” other than former President Donald Trump to be their presidential nominee.

VERDICT: False. The 45th president has garnered a majority, or near-majority support in nearly all recent national polls.

Thiessen’s claim came during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s The Faulkner Focus Tuesday morning:

Even though the majority of Republicans want somebody else to be the nominee, the polls show Trump has a commanding plurality of the GOP electorate but he doesn’t have a majority. So a majority of Republicans don’t want him to be the nominee, but even people who don’t want him to be the nominee don’t want our country to turn into a banana republic where the justice system is used to go after political opponents.

On Monday alone, several national polls showed the 45th president either already eclipsing the 50 percent support milestone or rapidly approaching a majority. Morning Consult’s weekly 2024 Republican primary tracker poll found Trump with 55 percent supporting him over a crowded primary field, more than doubling the support his closest potential competitor, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), garnered. Last week, Trump registered 52 percent, according to Morning Consult.

A Trafalgar Group poll also published on Monday had the 45th president with 56.2 percent support, a 33.7-point lead over DeSantis. In mid-March, before he announced the expectation of his arrest, Trump led DeSantis 43.8 to 32.2 percent, according to the pollster.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after the indictment and released Monday found Trump at 48 percent support, up from 44 percent in March.

Another post-indictment poll from Yahoo News and YouGov showed that 57 percent of Republicans supported the 45th president in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up with DeSantis. He maintained a 52 percent majority among a larger field. The poll was released on Saturday.

He also boasted 50 percent of support in a Harvard Harris poll conducted before the indictment. In a Fox News poll from late last month, 54 percent of GOP primary voters said they support Trump for the nomination.

A recent Marquette University poll found that Trump held 40 percent support in a crowded field. However, it was taken partially before he announced he expected to be arrested and before the actual indictment, which translated into a boost in other surveys. The poll did show that the 45th president enjoyed a 20-point swing in his favor since January.