Republican Donald Trump has drawn level with and even surpassed his White House rival Hillary Clinton as the billionaire enjoys a surge after his party’s nominating convention last week, polls showed Monday.
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Trump is seen favourably by 46 percent of respondents in contrast to 39 percent before last week’s GOP convention.
The poll by CNN places Mr Trump on 44 points, with Ms Clinton on 39, Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson on 9 points and the Green Party’s Jill Stein on 3 per cent.
According to the RealClearPolitics average of the latest national polls, in a head-to-head matchup, Trump now leads his Democratic counterpart, Hillary Clinton, by almost a full point.
A post-convention bump is inevitable for any presidential candidate. However, on the final night of the convention, Republicans gave Trump a standing ovation as he pledged to take back a country that he said is plagued by crime, terrorism and ineffective leadership.
CNN/ORC’s poll surveyed 1,001 adults by phone.
Meanwhile, documentary-maker Michael Moore has predicted Trump will win the election but called on Americans to prove him wrong.
The Fivethirthyeight now-cast does show Trump with a narrow lead suggesting that if the election were held today he has 57 percent chance of winning the Electoral College.
As for the independents, 64 percent said Trump does not have presidential temperament; 33 said he does. Perhaps most troubling for the Clinton supporters gathering in Philadelphia this week: 68% now say Clinton is not honest and trustworthy, her worst rating on that measure in CNN/ORC polling. While 60% of Republican voters had a positive impression of the former presidential candidate before the convention, just 33% have one now.
The poll was done from July 5 to 16 and has 4 percent margin of error.
Among both men and women, Clinton bests Trump with voters aged 44 and younger.
The presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, made two campaign stops in Charlotte just hours before the opening of the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia.
In the week before the convention, 882 surveyed registered voters said that Trump is in touch with problems facing ordinary Americans 37 percent of the time. Sixty-one percent were dissatisfied or strongly dissatisfied with Trump.
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Worried Democrats say they thought some of the “dark” themes that Trump and his allies raised in Cleveland wouldn’t gain traction in modern-day America.
