Donald Trump is only expanding his big lead after his explosive debate performance
Real-estate developer Donald Trump doesn't appear to be slowing down as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
Two new polls this week have found that the outspoken businessman has only expanded his lead since the first official debate earlier this month.
A CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday placed Trump in the No. 1 position, with 24% support among registered Republicans. That was more than double the 11% support of his next-nearest competitor, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R).
Photos from Trump's controversial campaign:
Many of the other candidates were clustered close behind Bush: retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 9%; Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) at 8%; Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) at 6%; Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) at 5%; and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) in 10th place at 4%.
According to CNN, Trump expanded his lead by 6 points since July. That rise suggests Trump's combative performance in the Aug. 6 debate did little to harm his candidacy.
A Fox News poll published Sunday found that, despite dominating the Republican field, Trump was "judged in the poll as having the worst debate performance and being considered the least likeable Republican candidate."
During the debate, Trump fielded a number of tough questions, including about his corporate bankruptcies, his threat to run a third-party campaign for president, and derogatory comments he's made about women. In the days after, Trump went to war with Fox News, which hosted the debate, as well as one of its moderators, Megyn Kelly. The network and Trump finally brokered an uneasy truce last week.
But CNN and Fox News weren't the only two outlets with favorable polls for Trump this week. A Morning Consult survey published Monday found the real-estate developer with 32% of the vote among registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
In the Morning Consult poll, Trump's next-closest rival was again Bush, who garnered just 12% of the GOP vote. No other candidate had double-digit support in the survey:
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