Donald Trump in his Trump Tower office in 2012. Diane Bondareff/Invision/AP A new poll released Friday confirmed a trend: Donald Trump doesn't have any direct challengers to his status as the Republican presidential front-runner.

The CNN/ORC survey found Trump on top of the crowded field, with 36% support among Republican and GOP-leaning independent voters.

According to CNN, "the new poll finds the businessman with both his broadest support and his widest lead in any national live-interviewer telephone poll since he announced his candidacy in June."

The next tier was made up of candidates who were tightly clustered. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas had 16%, followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson (14%) and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida (12%).

The rest of the Republican White House hopefuls were in the low single digits, including former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, who had just 3% support, and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who garnered a paltry 1%.

One month ago, Carson was edging Trump in Iowa, the influential first-caucus state, and Carson was even leading in some national surveys. But Carson's support tumbled amid questions about his knowledge of foreign policy and a renewed focus on national-security issues.

Earlier this week, a Quinnipiac University poll similarly found Trump alone at the top of the field. In that survey, Trump had 27% of the vote, followed by Rubio's 17%, with Cruz and Carson tied at 16% apiece.