Billionaire businessman Donald Trump Donald TrumpTrump attending Women's Open on Saturday in NJ Castro to Trump: Cuba doesn't need 'lessons' from the US Trump golf course may not host Scottish Open due to concern over 'politics' MORE stands atop the 2016 GOP presidential field in the first national poll since he was roundly criticized for his comments about Sen. John McCain’s war record. The new CNN/ORC Poll finds Trump at 18% support among Republicans, with former Florida governor Jeb Bush just behind at 15%, within the poll's margin of error. They are joined at the top of the pack by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, with 10% support among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who are registered to vote. Trump's backing has climbed 6 points since a late-June poll, while support for Bush and Walker has not changed significantly. The poll of 1,017 adults was conducted between July 22 and 25th, after Trump mocked McCain’s time as a prisoner of war, drawing condemnation from a broad spectrum of Republicans. Results for all registered voters have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Fifty two percent of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents want the outspoken real estate magnate to stay in the race, according to the CNN/ORC poll.
– Some media outlets might want to evict Donald Trump from their politics sections, but he appears to be doing pretty well among Americans surveying the political arena. As CNN reports in a new CNN/ORC national poll, Trump is polling at the top of the considerable heap of Republican presidential contenders, at 18%. Jeb Bush comes in second at 15%, Scott Walker at 10%, and no other GOP candidate cracked double digits. Of note: The poll was conducted after Trump started swinging at John McCain's war record, indicating he's emerged unscathed; the new poll puts Trump up 6 points over a similar poll at the end of June. "There's a movement going on," Trump told CNN this morning in response, per the Hill. "People are tired of these incompetent politicians in Washington ... I'm just not that surprised." Trump is racking up similar numbers in Iowa, per an NBC/Marist poll out today: He's at 17%, though he's trailing Walker's 19% in that state, reports Politico. Bush has 12% there. The story is a little more marked in New Hampshire, where Trump is pulling down 21% to Bush's 14% and Walker's 12%. And Trump's divisiveness shows in his unfavorability ratings: 53% of New Hampshire Republicans view him unfavorably, notes Politico, while that number is 44% in Iowa, and what CNN calls a "sky high" 59% of all registered voters in its poll.