There is no stopping Donald Trump. The real estate mogul and reality TV star is once again alone at the top of the Republican presidential hopefuls with a 20 point lead, according to a new poll.
A new CNN/ORC national poll released Friday found 36 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents picking Trump as their 2016 presidential candidate.
His nearest rival Texas Senator Ted Cruz at 16 percent trails him by 20 points, while former neurosurgeon Ben Carson is in the third place with 14 percent followed by Florida Senator Marco Rubio with 12 percent.
All other candidates have the support of less than 5 percent of Republican voters. Carson (down 8 points since October), former Florida governor Jeb Bush (down 5 points to 3 percent) and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (down 4 points to 1 percent) have lost the most ground since the last CNN/ORC poll, conducted in mid-October.
Several other recent polls have shown Trump reclaiming a solid lead atop the Republican field after several weeks of near parity with Carson, CNN noted.
But the new poll finds the businessman with both his broadest support and his widest lead in any national live-interviewer telephone poll since he announced his candidacy in June.
The poll reflects Trump's dominance over the rest of the field on the issues voters deem most important to them ranging from economy (55 percent) t illegal immigration (48 percent) to ISIS (46 percent) to foreign policy (30 percent).
More generally, about 4 in 10 Republicans say Trump is the candidate who would be most effective at solving the country's problems and could best handle the responsibilities of being commander-in-chief.
On immigration, an issue that has been a focal point of Trump's campaign, most Americans say the government should not attempt to deport all people living in the country illegally (63 percent).
Even more say such a mass deportation wouldn't be possible (81 percent). About half say such an effort would be harmful to the economy (47 percent), while about 3 in 10 say it would help (29 percent).
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
