Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is soaring in the latest polls as Americans express concerns about the next leader’s ability to fight the global Islamic terrorist threat.
Trump has 35 percent support in the CBS News/New York Times poll released Thursday. Trump is nineteen points ahead of his nearest challenger Ted Cruz, who is clocking in with 16 percent support, followed by Ben Carson.
On the establishment side, Sen. Marco Rubio is hanging onto nine percent, which is still three times higher than Jeb Bush’s three percent.
Poll respondents chose terrorism as their most important issue right now, and Trump has a 40 percent confidence level on that issue with Republicans in the poll.
The surveys that comprise the poll were mostly conducted before Trump’s comment proposing a temporary Muslim travel ban for the United States during this time of war. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt blocked naturalization proceedings for Germans, Japanese, and Italian immigrants on December 8, 1941, the day after the Pearl Harbor attack.