A majority of 52 percent said Trump has the best shot of any GOP candidate to win the general election in November. | AP Donald Trump opens 'yuge' lead over GOP field in CNN/ORC national poll

Donald Trump is the top choice of more than one out of every three Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters, according to the results of a new CNN/ORC poll released Friday. And it's not even close — at 36 percent, Trump's closest competitor for the GOP presidential nomination is Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, at 16 percent.

Ben Carson, who finished second in the October CNN/ORC poll, fell to third this time with 14 percent. Following the retired neurosurgeon, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio earned 12 percent, with no other candidate finishing in the double digits.


New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie earned 4 percent, followed by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina at 3 percent each, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 2 percent each and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul at 1 percent. Other candidates failed to register support, while 2 percent said they had no opinion.

Friday's poll provides further evidence that declarations that the summer of Trump would fizzle in the fall were premature. Trump has not eased off his inflammatory comments, including his assertion that he saw footage of thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating as the World Trade Center came down on 9/11. And in the wake of Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, Trump offered up a suggestion of a database of Muslims and restarting formal surveillance in New York City of mosques and Muslim communities.

"I'm gonna get people jobs and I'm going to protect people. And that's why whenever there's a tragedy, everything goes up, my numbers go way up because we have no strength in this country, we have weak, sad politicians," Trump told CNN on Thursday, as Americans were still reeling from Wednesday's shooting massacre in San Bernardino, California.

Trump also got a bump in a Quinnipiac University survey released earlier this week, edging up 3 points to 27 percent, as Carson tumbled 7 points. In RealClearPolitics' average of polling, Trump is also dominating with 30.8 percent support, more than 18 points ahead of Carson, who is still in second at 17.5 percent.

In Friday's CNN/ORC poll, regardless of whom they plan to vote for, majorities or pluralities said Trump is best qualified to tackle issues related to the economy (55 percent, with Cruz next closest at 9 percent), illegal immigration (48 percent to Rubio's 14 percent), foreign policy (30 percent to Cruz's 17 percent), the Islamic State (46 percent to Cruz's 15 percent) and the federal budget (51 percent to Cruz's 10 percent).

A majority of 52 percent said Trump has the best shot of any GOP candidate to win the general election in November, while a plurality of 42 percent said he would be most effective at solving issues facing the United States, and another 37 percent said he would be the best candidate to handle the responsibilities that come with being commander in chief.

The poll was conducted Nov. 27-Dec. 1, surveying 445 Republican or Republican-leaning registered voters via landlines and cellphones. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.