Donald Trump remarks haven’t hurt his campaign

Republican Donald Trump trails Democrat Hillary Clinton by 10 points in the 2016 presidential campaign, according to a poll, showing little change from a week ago and suggesting his comments about a Mexican-American judge had yet to affect his standing in the race.

Thu, 09 Jun, 2016 - 01:00

Chris Kahn

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll came after several days in which Mr Trump faced sharp criticism over his insistence that a federal judge who was born in Indiana to Mexican parents was biased in a case involving the billionaire.

But the fallout from Mr Trump’s comments appeared to have done little to help Ms Clinton build her lead over the presumptive Republican nominee.

The online survey showed that 44.3% of likely voters said they would vote for Ms Clinton, compared with 34.7% who would support Mr Trump. A further 20.9% said they would not vote for either candidate. .

The poll was conducted from Friday to Tuesday, shortly after Mr Trump’s first comments about US district judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing fraud lawsuits against Trump University, the businessman’s defunct real estate school.

Mr Trump has suggested Judge Curiel’s heritage is influencing his opinion about the case because of Mr Trump’s campaign rhetoric about illegal immigration.

Other events, including news that Ms Clinton had secured enough delegates and superdelegates to become the first female presidential candidate of a major US political party, occurred towards the end of the poll.

The poll included 1,261 respondents and had a credibility interval of 3.2 percentage points. For most of the year, Ms Clinton has maintained an edge over Mr Trump.

That edge briefly disappeared in May after Mr Trump’s remaining rivals dropped out and party leaders started to line up behind his campaign.

Mr Trump’s level of support has since eroded as he sparred with leadership and was dogged with questions about Trump University.