In matchups between Trump and Carson, Trump leads as the strongest choice to combat Islamic terrorism. | AP Photo Poll: Trump, Carson remain on top

A pair of political outsiders continues to lead the Republican presidential field after the carnage in Paris, despite growing questions about their foreign-policy experience and acumen.

A Bloomberg Politics poll of U.S. adults out Thursday found that billionaire Donald Trump tops all GOP candidates with 24 percent, Dr. Ben Carson follows with 20 percent and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has 12 percent. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz comes in at 9 percent, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has 6 percent and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has 4 percent. All other candidates are at 3 percent or below.


In matchups between Trump and Carson, Trump leads as the strongest choice to combat Islamic terrorism (55 percent to 29 percent) and handle Vladimir Putin (52 percent to 38 percent).

And while Trump may lead with Republican voters, overall a majority of adults polled from both parties said it would be wrong (63 percent to 27 percent) to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, a key component of Trump’s immigration plan. President Barack Obama’s policy of allowing undocumented immigrants who came into the U.S. as children to stay gets a plurality of support, and 63 percent of those polled believe it should be continued.

The national poll of 1,002 adults was conducted Nov. 15-17 via telephone. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The margin of error for the sample of 379 Republican voters is plus or minus 5 percentage points.