Clinton leads Trump by eight points: Reuters/Ipsos poll

According to Pew, the survey found that Trump supporters overwhelmingly believe that life in America is worse than it was 50 years ago “for people like them”.

So, with all that baggage, a hashtag like #BetterPOTUSCandidates was bound to take off, with many online chiming in with suggestions of who, or what, might make better presidential candidates than Clinton or Trump.

While Trump’s first ad is a “solid setup” piece, with its focus on security, Gerow said, “the key is going to be what comes beyond this”. When they fall, they tend to blame the incumbent party for their misfortunes, McClellan said.

In the RealClearPolitics.com average of all major national polls, Clinton is leading Trump by 5.8 percentage points.

There was positive feedback on social media in response to the ad’s release.

According to polls conducted by Gallup, her favorability ratings have fallen from a high of around 65 percent during her tenure as secretary of state to just over 40 percent after the Democratic convention, a historic low for a presidential candidate, surpassed only by Trump.

It’s the first time he has spend money on television since he became the official GOP nominee.

“I would see us as being more competitive when there’s not a Virginian on the ballot”.

The billionaire businessman also said Democrats had let down black voters and vowed “If African-American voters give Donald Trump a chance by giving me their vote”, he said, “the result for them will be unbelievable”.

Most national polls now have Hillary Clinton beating her Republican rival in Virginia by double digits, which is likely why the Democratic candidate has suspended her television ad spending in the state.

A federal judge on Friday ordered Clinton to provide written testimony under oath regarding her use of a private computer server to send and receive emails during her time as Secretary of State, the New York Times reported.

Clinton’s campaign, meanwhile, brushed off the speech off as just words he read from a teleprompter.

“We learned tonight that his speechwriter and teleprompter knows he has much for which he should apologize”.

“I think he’s evolving”, she said.

What these results demonstrate is that even within a Republican Party that has shifted rightward and out of step with the mainstream of the country, the Trump supporters are an extremist fringe.