Trump Plummeting in Marist, Other Polls Following DNC and Disastrous Week

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — Donald Trump is a numbers guy, and the numbers aren't good in a series of polls released in the last 24 hours — including the Marist Poll — which show the Republican presidential nominee down in virtually every survey, several in double digits.

National polls:

• NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows Clinton with a 9-point lead over Trump, 47 percent to 38 percent.
• McClatchy/Marist poll says Clinton has a 15-point leadover Trump, 48 percent to 33 percent.
• Fox News poll shows Clinton ahead of Trump by 10 points, 49 percent to 39 percent.

In Marist's national survey conducted from Monday through Wednesday this week, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine lead Republicans Donald Trump and Mike Pence by 15 points among registered voters in the race for the White House. Still, 12 percent say they would not support either candidate if the election were held today, and 2 percent say they would back someone else. Five percent are undecided. Clinton has gained support while Trump has lost ground since last month’s McClatchy-Marist Poll, when the numbers were much closer.

“Add a long list of unforced errors by Trump to Clinton’s post-convention bounce, and you end up with a Trump candidacy in jeopardy,” said Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, when the poll was released. “The tale of the tape is that Trump now trails Clinton by double digits and, in contrast with Clinton, is viewed as unacceptable by the majority of the electorate.”

On Thursday, the Trump campaign downplayed the significance of the polls, saying it "expected" Clinton to go up in the polls following the Democratic convention.

"It depends on which poll you look at. We feel like in another week or so, the polls are going to even out," Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort said. "We always thought we had a bounce and knew the Democrats would have a bounce. And now you see a situation in what looks like an uneven field, but in two weeks we think that’s gonna even out if we are out there on our message, which we will be."

However, Manafort did not address the disastrous week Trump found himself in and the role that plays in his dropping polling numbers.

In the last week, Trump continued his war of words with a Gold Star family, declared that he "always wanted" a Purple Heart but that it's "easier" to receive one as a gift, admitted that there was no "secret" video of a U.S. plane carrying $400 million in cash to Iran, and declined to endorse Republican candidates including House Speaker Paul Ryan.

In recent national polling, Clinton leads head-to-head match-ups against Trump, with the Democrat holding 47.4 percent support compared to 40.6 for the Republican presidential nominee, according to averages compiled by RealClear Politics.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons

By Allen McDuffee and Lanning Taliaferro