Trump’s support down 12 points in poll in less than a week

U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump's support among Republicans has dropped 12 percentage points in less than a week, marking the real estate mogul's biggest decline since he vaulted to the top of the field in July, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Trump was the favorite of 31 percent of Republicans in a rolling poll in the five days ending Nov. 27 — down from a peak of 43 percent on Nov. 22.

The dip follows criticism of Trump for comments he made in the aftermath of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, which killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more.

After the attacks, Trump told an NBC News reporter that he would support requiring all Muslims in the United States to be registered in a special database, which his critics have likened to the mandatory registration of Jews in Nazi Germany.

Trump has also been criticized for flailing his arms and distorting his speech as he mocked a New York Times reporter, Serge Kovaleski, who is disabled.

Trump mocked Kovaleski as the candidate defended his unsubstantiated assertion that during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, he watched on television as "thousands and thousands" of people in New Jersey cheered while the World Trade Center fell.

He is not the top contender to slide in the latest survey.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has seen his poll numbers drift downward and now trails Trump by more than half, with just 15 percent of Republicans in the Nov. 27 Reuters/Ipsos poll saying they would vote for him. As recently as late October, Carson trailed Trump by only 6 points.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are tied for third place, with more than 8 points each. Behind them was former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, with 7 points.

The five-day rolling average sample size ranged from 464 to 347 respondents from Nov. 22 to Nov. 27, with a credibility interval of 5.2 to 6.1 percentage points.

Reuters