Donald Trump clocks in at 41 percent in a new Rasmussen presidential poll, with presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton at 39 percent, in an anticipated November, 2016, general election contest.

The findings giving GOP front-runner Trump at 2 point lead, and which apparently demonstrate the New York real estate mogul’s crossover appeal, were derived from telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters conducted on April 27 and 28.

“Trump now has the support of 73% of Republicans, while 77% of Democrats back Clinton. But Trump picks up 15% of Democrats, while just eight percent (8%) of GOP voters prefer Clinton, given this matchup. Republicans are twice as likely to prefer another candidate. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, Trump leads 37% to 31%…,” Rasmussen noted.

Obviously it’s a long way to November, and Trump’s lead is within the margin of error of the Rasmussen poll, even assuming the data has validity.

A slightly earlier poll from the same organization revealed that Trump and Clinton were tied at 38 percent, but with 24 percent indicating they would consider staying home or going third party if either becomes the nominee.

In another new Rasmussen poll, 89 percent of Republican voters now think front-runner Donald Trump will win the GOP nomination, up 18 points in just one week.

Donald Trump has repeatedly boasted that he will beat Hillary Clinton easily in November, a claim that his foes in the GOP establishment and among pro-Ted Cruz pundits in particular have scoffed at. Bernie Sanders supporters, however, have seized upon the Rasmussen Trump two point lead on social media to insist that Hillary Clinton is unelectable as the Democrat presidential standard-bearer.

Like him or hate him, as suggested in the Rasmussen data, Trump’s appeal extends beyond a sizable segment of the Republican base to so-called Reagan Democrats and Independents. A Democrat strategist has even claimed that about 40 percent of the Bernie Sanders cohort will vote for Trump over Clinton, should the former Secretary of State get her party’s nomination.

Republican (and former Democrat and Independent) Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, who is a democratic socialist running for president as a Democrat, share certain populist views, such as condemning the Iraq War and opposing bipartisan international trade treaties and deal-making that sends U.S. jobs overseas. Both also favor raising taxes on the super rich, such as Wall Street hedge fund managers. Trump has also promised to put forth a plan addressing skyrocketing college tuition debt, one of Sanders’ big issues.

Donald Trump recently told Morning Joe Scarborough and MSNBC co-host Mika Brzezinski that “Bernie Sanders has a message that’s interesting. I’m going to be taking a lot of the things that Bernie said and using them. I can re-read some of his speeches, and I can get some very good material.”

In other polling news, going into tomorrow’s key Indiana GOP Primary, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll gives Trump a 15-point lead over Ted Cruz, 49 percent to 34 percent, with John Kasich at 13.

According to the latest Real Clear Politics average, Donald Trump’s lead in the winner-take-all Indiana Primary has jumped to 9 percent, with 57 RNC convention delegates are at stake.

Although the tally differs depending on who’s counting and the methodology used. Donald Trump — the winner of 27 states so far in the primary season — has approximately 1,000 delegates to the RNC convention in his corner, with 1,237 delegates needed to officially secure the nomination as the GOP presidential standard-bearer in the November, 2016, general election. The billionaire businessman and ex-Celebrity Apprentice star is currently also favored to win in California and New Jersey, where a total of 172 and 51 delegates, respectively, are in play.

Who do you think will win in election 2016, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton (assuming they are the major party candidates for president)?

[Photo by Darron Cummings/AP]