Despite assuring Republicans he would beat Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton “very easily” in the general election, Donald Trump trails the former secretary of state by almost 10 points in a new poll released Wednesday.
According to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll of registered voters, Clinton would edge Trump 50-41 percent if the two candidates went head-to-head in November. The former first lady has expanded her lead over Trump by six points since September.
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Trump, the thrice-married billionaire who’s been heavily criticized for his treatment of women, trails Clinton by 21 percentage points among women voters in the same poll, although he leads her by 5 percent among men.
The survey also suggests Republican voters would be less enthusiastic about voting for the New York businessman, who dubs himself a “common-sense conservative,” than Democratic voters would be about supporting Clinton. While three-quarters of Republican respondents would support Trump as their party’s nominee, 86 percent of Democrats would support Clinton as theirs.
Clinton also outperformed Trump among independents, 48 to 39 percent, and voters under the age of 40, and was consistently rated the more trusted candidate on handling the economy, terrorism, immigration and dealing with international crises. On immigration, an issue Trump has made central to his campaign, Clinton leads him by 19 percentage points as the more trusted candidate.
Both candidates, however, continue to struggle to appear “honest and trustworthy” to American voters. About 60 percent of respondents said Clinton is not honest and trustworthy, while 69 percent said the same of Trump. In this category, Marco Rubio leads the 2016 field with the greatest percentage of voters (47 percent) describing him as honest and trustworthy.
In his last two press conferences, Trump has tried to refine his harsh rhetoric and questionable temperament to appear more presidential. But the same survey suggests the real estate mogul has a long way to go before a majority of Americans picture him as someone suited for the Oval Office.
While 58 percent of respondents said Clinton has “the right kind of personality and temperament to serve as president,” only 25 percent said the same of Trump. Additionally, just over a quarter of voters said Trump “understands the problems of people like [them]” and “has the right experience” to be commander in chief. Clinton led those categories by 49 and 66 percent, respectively.
The survey of 864 registered U.S. voters was conducted March 3-6. Results contain a margin of error plus or minus 4 percent.
