Trump hurdles challenges, boosts lead even further in latest CNN/ORC poll

He has had some very bitter public battles with right-leaning Fox News since the first debate, and party heads are starting to coalesce behind “safer” candidates like Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush. Rubio is also up slightly, gaining 4 points – an increase within the poll’s margin of sampling error – since the last CNN/ORC poll.

He told the crowd that even if the night before the caucuses, someone had caught their spouse cheating – well, they still needed to show up for the sake of Trump’s candidacy.

Rubio and Carson are tied at 19%, and Trump is at 18%. On the economy, 55 percent said they trust him the most to handle this vital issue, 46 percent ahead of his nearest rival. No other candidate tops the 5 percent mark.

Like Cruz, he appears to have improved his standing with Iowa voters, increasing his support by seven percentage points since the last poll, up from 10 percent in October.

The poll was conducted before this week’s deadly shootings in San Bernardino, California, which were carried out by a man reported to have been radicalized and his wife, claiming the lives of at least 14 people.

Even more say such a mass deportation wouldn’t be possible (81 per cent). About half say such an effort would be harmful to the economy (47%), while about 3 in 10 say it would help (29%).

But in a clear break from Rubio and other Republican national security hawks, Cruz suggested the United States would be safer with Assad continuing in his role as Syrian president, just as the world would have been safer had Middle East dictators not been toppled in Libya, Egypt and Iraq.

In addition, GOP officials are hesitant to attack Trump, “because he lashes back like ISIS”, former Nevada Republican Gov. Robert List told CNN, noting he thinks Trump has just a “small chance” of becoming the nominee.

Trump has 36 percent support, nine percent higher than he had in October more than double the 16 percent backing for ultraconservative Texas Sen.

Then Trump made a decision to speak at the Republican Jewish Coalition earlier today and forced me to revise my earlier opinion. When you examine the poll, which was taken from November 27 through December 1, 2015 (which was a holiday weekend and is problematical all by itself in terms of who the respondents were), it is clear that the pollsters chose to ask five questions on the topic of illegal immigration prior to asking about the Republican nomination horserace.

The real estate mogul is the Republican front-runner followed by another outsider, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.