Out of the seven Republican candidates listed, he fared worst against the leading Democrat, trailing by 17 percentage points. Mr Bush fared best against Ms Clinton, trailing by 4 points.

Mr Rubio, Mike Huckabee and Mr Walker have more ground to make up against Ms Clinton, though all less than 10 points.

The poll surveyed 1000 adults from Thursday to Sunday. There was a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

A sample of 349 likely Republican voters in early primary states had a larger margin of error, placed at plus or minus 5.25 percentage points by the newspaper.

Mr Trump maintains a sizeable advantage in name identification, built over decades as a real estate mogul, author and television personality.