Don Bacon defends Donald Trump after his conviction on 34 counts
The Nebraska Republican did an about-face on supporting Trump after the former president appeared to secure the GOP nomination.

Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon has defended Donald Trump after the former president was convicted on 34 felony counts in a New York court, questioning the credibility of the charges and falsely claiming that the counts Trump was convicted on are rarely brought in court.
“Sad day for the country,” Bacon wrote on X on May 30. “This is an unprecedented prosecution for a crime very seldom charged, led by a prosecutor who campaigned on going after Trump. That undermines the credibility of the verdict. I have trust in our legal system which includes the appeals process.”
Trump was convicted on May 30 on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a hush money scheme to keep a porn actress and a Playboy model from going public during the 2016 campaign with allegations that they had affairs with Trump.
While Bacon said such charges are seldom brought, an analysis by the publication Just Security found dozens of instances in which average New Yorkers faced charges of falsifying business records over the last decade.
Bacon’s defense of Trump is an about-face from previous comments he made about Trump’s criminal liability.
In June 2023, after Trump was indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents, Bacon called Trump’s wrongdoing “obvious” and said that Republicans should recognize that and nominate someone else for president.
“I just think the emperor has no clothes, and we need to have Republicans stand up and say that because, come around after the primary, I guarantee you the other party is going to be saying this,” Bacon said at the time, the Hill newspaper reported.
Yet Bacon, who is one of just 16 Republicans in the U.S. House who represent districts President Joe Biden won in 2020, has since come around to Trump, endorsing Trump’s 2024 reelection bid.
“I am a lifelong Republican, and I will support Donald Trump as our party’s nominee for President,” Bacon wrote in a post on X on March 6, when it was clear Trump was going to be the GOP nominee. “Republican voters across our country have spoken, and it is clear we want to return to the secure borders, strong economy, energy independence, and SCOTUS nominations that President Trump delivered. It is time to defeat Joe Biden.”
While Bacon is standing by Trump after the conviction, polling shows that a majority of voters think the trial was fair and that Trump was guilty of the crimes he was charged with.
A HarrisX poll conducted overnight on May 30-31 found that 57% of voters believed that Trump was guilty and that he had received a fair trial. A Morning Consult poll conducted in the same time period found 54% of voters believed Trump was guilty. And a Data for Progress survey conducted on May 31 and June 1 found 56% of voters approved of the jury finding Trump guilty, with 60% of swing voters approving of the jury’s decision.