Jailing Donald Trump will only help him win the next US presidential race and can’t stop him taking office, one of his campaign chiefs has said.

The former president appeared in court on Thursday to deny four charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result.

Since he is the overwhelming favourite to win the Republican nomination for the 2024 race, the impending trial has sparked fierce debate within the party over what to do if he’s convicted.

Last week, Trump vowed to stay in the race even if he’s found guilty, insisting there’s ‘nothing in the Constitution’ that could stop him.

He is correct, and the principle was tested in 1920 when Socialist Party nominee Eugene V Debs won nearly a million votes while in jail for denouncing America’s decision to join the First World War.

But there is no such precedent to show what would happen if he won.

According to John Fredericks, a radio talk show host who chaired the Trump campaign in the state of Virginia in 2016 and 2020, a newly re-elected Trump would simply call on the president’s power to pardon people for federal crimes.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme on Friday, he said: ‘If he goes to jail, he’ll run from jail, and he’ll win from jail. And then the Supreme Court justice will have to go to his prison cell, swear him in as president, and one minute later, he’ll pardon himself, walk out and save America.’

Legal experts say it’s still not clear whether presidents can indeed pardon themselves, and that the Supreme Court would likely end up having to weigh up arguments either way.

Mr Fredericks cited new polling suggesting that a growing number of American floating voters would vote for Trump – though the figure is still only around 20%.

Speaking of the decision to indict Trump, he said: ‘You cannot indict a movement. This is the greatest populist political movement in the history of the American republic as we know it.

‘What they did today is they absolutely guaranteed that Trump will be the Republican nominee, jail or not, and they dramatically increased his chances of winning the presidency.’

Despite Trump’s growing support, 56% of voters still find him ‘unfavourable’ versus 40% who hold a ‘favourable’ view of the 77-year-old, according to leading pollsters FiveThirtyEight.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll found 45% of Republican voters would not vote for Trump if he was convicted of a felony, against just 35% who said they still would.

Scott Jennings, former special assistant to former president George W Bush, told Radio 4: ‘He’s finished second in the national popular vote in two elections.

‘In mid-term elections in which he has been the central issue, the Republican party has underperformed or lost ground.

‘So he’s not proven to be an electoral winner, and that’s outside of everything else that happened after he lost the last election.’

Will Heard, former Texas congressman who is an outsider in the Republican nomination race, added: ‘If the Republican Party nominates Donald Trump to be our nominee we’re giving Joe Biden four more years of the presidency.’

Trump was arraigned on four counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

The central allegation is that he orchestrated a plot to overturn the 2020 result.

One of the most high-profile accusers cited in the charges is his own vice president, Mike Pence, who said Trump and a ‘gaggle of crackpot lawyers’ asked him to ‘literally reject votes’.

Speaking at Ronald Reagan airport after the hearing, he said: ‘When you look at what’s happening, this is a persecution of a political opponent. This was never supposed to happen in America.’

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