It's Donald Trump's party, and Paul Ryan is just a guest.

As the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and the House speaker jockey for control of the GOP brand, a new poll finds party voters are siding with Trump.

Nearly six in 10 registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say they trust the billionaire real estate developer over Ryan, the party's top elected official, according to NBC News/SurveyMonkey's tracking poll released Tuesday.

Just 39 percent of those surveyed said they trust Ryan, the Republicans' 2012 vice presidential nominee, over Trump to lead the party, compared to 58 percent who prefer Trump.

At the same time, Trump's support gets stronger among more conservative voters, a flip from his struggles early in primary voting among those who identified as more ideologically extreme. The former reality television star has a 17-point edge over Ryan among those who identify as moderate or conservative, but that advantage grows to a 29-point gap with very conservative voters.

The results present troubling news for Ryan, long considered the leader of the conservative wing of the GOP and representative of the party's future.

Party elites hoping to draft Ryan to challenge Trump for the nomination took heart from the speaker's "shadow campaign," a months-long effort to affirm Republican fealty to conservative principles and draw contrast to the brash businessman, who has shown a willingness to violate party dogma.

The same qualities that made Ryan the consensus choice to take up the gavel when former Speaker John Boehner announced his resignation last fall – his devotion to serious policymaking, his apparent ability to draw support from the disparate wings of the GOP – appealed to elites desperate for a white knight to rescue the party from Trump's hostile takeover.

But Ryan refused to run, declaring he'd rather unite the party against likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and, perhaps more importantly, protect Republican majorities in both the House and Senate.

Even as Trump locked up the nomination and other top party officials fell in line, however, the Wisconsin conservative has held off on an endorsement.

Yet Ryan appears to have seen the writing on the wall. Following a high-profile meeting last week , the speaker seemed swayed – if not fully convinced – by Trump, and said they will meet again to talk policy and find common ground.