Ahead of Monday night’s debate, 75 percent of those polled said they intend to watch. | Getty Monmouth national poll: Trump creeps up on Clinton

With Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton set to square off for the first time in Monday night’s presidential debate, a new Monmouth University poll shows the former secretary of state’s nationwide lead shrinking.

Trump trails Clinton by just four percentage points, 46 percent to 42 percent, among likely voters nationwide in the poll released Monday afternoon. That four-point advantage is down from the seven-point edge Clinton enjoyed in the previous Monmouth poll, released in August.


The four-way poll also included Libertarian Gary Johnson, who polled at 8 percent among likely voters, and the Green Party’s Jill Stein, who polled at 2 percent with that group.

Ahead of Monday night’s debate, 75 percent of those polled said they intend to watch, although just 12 percent said it is either “very likely” or “somewhat likely” that the debate will have an impact on which candidate they support. Eighty-seven percent of respondents said there is no chance that the debate will affect their support for a particular candidate.

On the question of which major-party candidate possesses the correct temperament to be president, those polled favored Clinton (58 percent) over Trump (35 percent). But respondents were split equally at 48 percent between the two candidates when asked which would better handle the issue of the economy and jobs. Respondents were similarly split on the issue of terrorism on U.S. soil, with 48 percent favoring Clinton and 45 percent picking Trump.

The Monmouth University poll was conducted from Sept. 22-25 via landlines and cell phones, reaching 802 registered voters with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.5 percent. Of the 802 respondents, 729 were deemed likely to vote in November’s general election. The margin of error for that group was plus-or-minus 3.6 percent.