70% have unfavorable opinion of Trump

The first general election poll after Hillary Clinton pretty much cemented her status as the Democratic nominee – while Donald Trump drew negative attention for his remarks against the judge in his Trump University lawsuit – shows Clinton with a 12-point lead over her opponent.

The online poll included 1063 likely voters and had a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of about 3.5 percentage points.

The weekly tracking poll, from NBC News included the opinions of 7 per cent more self-identified Democrats than Republicans – the same margin as the poll’s topline result. That unfavorable number – a record for Clinton since 1992, just before she became first lady – is just a two-percentage point hike from last month, when 53 percent viewed her negatively.

One bit of positive news for Trump in the results is that he narrowly edges out Clinton, 45 per cent to 41 per cent, when those surveyed were asked which candidate they would have more confidence in if a similar attack to the one in Florida took place a year from now. Still, Clinton’s ratings have remained largely unchanged from last month despite receiving enough votes to clinch the nomination.

Even rival Vermont senator Bernie Sanders called off his harshest attacks while still training fire on Donald Trump. In a March Marquette Law Poll, Clinton had 47 percent support and Trump 37 percent.

Trump’s approval rating among racial and ethnic minorities is remarkably low, with 94 percent of blacks and 89 percent of Hispanics rating the NY billionaire unfavorably.

The real-estate mogul faced significant backlash from much of the Republican party for questioning whether a judge of Mexican heritage could fairly judge a case against him because of his proposal to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Mrs. Clinton had a 25 percent/39 percent split among “strongly” favorable and unfavorable views – a 14-point gap.

But Democratic voters’ enthusiasm has increased, rising in June to 84 percent certain to vote from 81 percent in March, according to the poll. Aside from the large share of independents who say they’d back the Muslim ban, he’s adamantly opposed to another assault-weapons ban.

All three poll of polls show Clinton’s numbers holding or increasing since May 18-23 while Trump’s have been declining during the same time period.

Meanwhile, a recent Reuters/Ipsos found Clinton has built an 11-point bulge over Trump at 46 percent to 35 percent. Trump has come under fire for his rhetoric at a federal judge and other groups since he was tied with Clinton in late May.