Donald Trump addresses the press at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 10, 2015.
A new poll gives Donald Trump a double-digit lead over his 2016 Republican primary rivals, though most of the survey was conducted before the flap over Trump’s comments about Sen. John McCain’s prisoner of war status.
Trump has 24% in the new ABC News/Washington Post poll, with Scott Walker in second place at 13% and Jeb Bush at 12%. All the other Republican candidates are in single digits.
The billionaire businessman is “also garnering enough support as a hypothetical independent candidate in the general election to potentially damage his party’s chances,” reports ABC News.
ABC also reports that “a majority of Americans, including most Republicans, say Trump does not represent the Republican Party’s core values, and six in 10 overall — including three in 10 in his own party — say they wouldn’t consider supporting him for president were he the GOP nominee.”
Pollsters interviewed respondents Thursday through Sunday; late Saturday, some Republicans began calling for Trump’s exit from the race after his comments about McCain being “captured” during his service in Vietnam.
“I like people that weren’t captured, OK?” Trump said at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, on Saturday.
Support for Trump fell sharply on the one night that voters were surveyed following those comments. Telephone interviewing for the poll began Thursday, and most calls were completed before the news about the remarks was widely reported. Although the sample size for the final day was small, the decline was statistically significant.
“Trump’s frontrunner status, moreover, reflects the crowded GOP race. He leads the 16-candidate field with 24% support among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who are registered to vote, up sharply from 4% in May. While enough for a lead, that also means 76% prefer someone else, or none of them.”
Trump hailed poll as evidence that his anti-politician message is resonating with voters. “People are tired of incompetent leaders and being pushed around at will by other nations, our enemies, and even our friends. Politicians have completely failed the American people,” he said in a release.
Republican Clown College
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