WASHINGTON — It could have been Donald Trump’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. Or not.
But a new Reuters/Ipsos poll of the last five days ending Nov. 27 shows a near free-fall for “the Donald,” who nonetheless remains in the top slot in the GOP Republican nomination fight.
According to Reuters, Trump’s support among Republicans dropped 12 points in less than a week, making it the “the real estate mogul’s biggest decline since he vaulted to the top of the field in July.”
Trump was the favorite of 31 percent of Republicans in a rolling poll in the five days ending Nov. 27. That was down from a peak of 43 percent among Republicans registered on Nov. 22.
The decline follows a string of outbursts, remarks and seeming radical policy positions following the Paris attacks on Nov. 13, including the apparent mocking of a disabled reporter. He also made a series of confusing statements about whether or not he wanted all Muslims to be registered in a national database. Later in the week, he stood by claims that he saw thousands of people in the streets of New Jersey cheering on the 9/11 attacks.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has seen his poll numbers slip, too, and is now behind Trump at 15 percent. Following Carson are Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who are tied for third place, with more than 8 percent each. Jeb Bush follows with 7 percent of the Republicans’ vote.
The five-day rolling average sample size ranged from 464 to 347 respondents between Nov. 22 and Nov. 27.
