Donald Trump Polls: After Attack On Hispanic Judge Leads To Scorn From His Own Party Members, Trump’s Poll Numbers Take A Nosedive
Donald Trump is taking a beating in the polls, with a series of controversies erasing the bump he received after ending the Republican primary and threatening to sink Trump’s hopes of the White House with still months to go.
Trump had his best month in May, with an abrupt end to the Republican race after Trump’s victory in the Indiana primary leading to four weeks of fence mending within the party. After Ted Cruz and John Kasich dropped out, Trump went to work meeting with Republican leaders, many of whom had publicly opposed him during the primary.
He was able to secure endorsements from a number of Republican leaders and saw his poll numbers rise to the point that he was leading Hillary Clinton in a series of polls.
But those polls have turned sharply in the other direction as Donald Trump has once again found controversy, including his racially based attacks on a Hispanic judge overseeing a fraud case against him.
Trump courted trouble in the past week when he attacked federal judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing the civil case against Trump in San Diego for his Trump University, which has been described as a scam. Trump called Curiel a “hater” and said the judge is being unfair to Trump because Curiel is “Hispanic,” and because Trump is proposing to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.
Despite widespread criticism, Donald Trump doubled down on the criticism in a statement issued this week. Trump backed off the line of attack that Curiel’s heritage makes him biased, but he still tore into the judge.
“I do not feel that one’s heritage makes them incapable of being impartial,” Trump said, “but, based on the rulings that I have received in the Trump University civil case, I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial.”
Amid the controversy, Trump saw a sharp drop in the polls, with a series of polls this week showing Clinton with a lead between two and 10 points.
As Donald Trump plummets in the polls, he is seeing an increasing number of Republicans speaking out against him. The attack on judge Gonzalo Curiel has led even many of Trump’s allies to decry his actions, with Ben Carson saying publicly that Trump was wrong in his attack.
New national poll: Trump dips in general election matchup https://t.co/IaP00Pbbvy
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) June 10, 2016
One of Trump’s few non-white surrogates, Carson is seen as important to building his coalition, but he had some harsh words for Trump this week.
“He was probably talking out loud rather than thinking. That’s not a good thing to do when everything you say is going to be analyzed,” he told Politico.
Carson also offered a half-hearted endorsement of Trump that was closer to an attack against Democrats.
“You know what I say to people who say that? I say, what’s the alternative?” Carson told Politico. “Look at where we are as a nation right now. We are moving full speed ahead on the progressive train, heading off the cliff. I mean, somebody 30 years ago, if you tried to describe America today, they would say, ‘get out of here.’ Are we going to continue on that train? Or do we want to get back to the more traditional values.”
The controversies have caused Donald Trump to take a nosedive in the poll averages as well. After rising to within a point of Hillary Clinton’s lead near the end of May, Trump has dropped off considerably and is now losing by a roughly five-point margin, according the Huffington Post’s Pollster, which aggregates all general election polls.
Donald Trump just took a big dip in a major poll https://t.co/e8kagGwa41
— Jess Phillips Jr. (@jessphillips747) June 10, 2016
Donald Trump could still have more room to fall in the polls. This week, Hillary Clinton wrapped up the Democratic primary with big wins in New Jersey and California, leading to an endorsement from President Barack Obama. She is now expected to receive her own nomination bump in polls, which could put her up as much as 10 points on Trump.
[Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images]
