Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump in new poll, but Trump is rated more honest


Hillary Clinton has lost ground against Donald Trump in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday night, but she still leads him by 6 percentage points in a four-way race, winning 43 percent of likely voters versus 37 percent for Trump, 9 percent for Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson, and 3 percent for the Green Party's Jill Stein. In a head-to-head race, Clinton leads Trump by 7 points, 48 percent to 41 percent. This is the first NBC/WSJ poll to include likely voters; among registered voters, Clinton leads Trump by 5 points in a four-way race and by 7 points in a two-way contest — both numbers are down for Clinton since August.
On the issues, voters prefer Trump on the economy, 46 percent to 41 percent, but Clinton comes out on top with every other issue polled: Being in charge of America's nukes, good commander in chief, immigration, and terrorism and homeland security. She is also seen as more knowledgeable and experienced (60 percent to 23 percent) and with a better temperament to be president (56 percent to 23 percent). On the other hand, Trump is seen as more honest and straightforward by 10 points, 41 percent to 31 percent.
Trump voters are slightly more enthusiastic about the election, 78 percent versus 75 percent of Clinton voters, the poll found, but 68 percent of Clinton supporters said they will "definitely" vote for her, 2 points higher than among Trump voters. And while half of Clinton backers are mostly voting for her (versus 44 percent voting against Trump), more Trump voters are anti-Clinton (51 percent) than pro-Trump (41 percent). "Despite arguably the worst few weeks of her candidacy, the fundamentals still point toward a Hillary Clinton victory," said Democratic pollster Fred Yang, who conducted the poll with GOP pollster Bill McInturff. McInturff pointed to the good news for Trump: "The electorate narrowly agrees with him that America has lost ground and wants to see a change in direction."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The poll was conducted Sept. 16-19 with 1,000 registered voters with landline phones and cellphones; the margin of error for registered voters is ±3.1 percentage points and for likely voters, ±3.2 points. You can read the granular details or more highlights at NBC News.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
How global conflicts are reshaping flight paths
Under the Radar Airlines are having to take longer and convoluted routes to avoid conflict zones
-
Zohran Mamdani: the young progressive likely to be New York City's next mayor
In The Spotlight The policies and experience that led to his meteoric rise
-
The best film reboots of all time
The Week Recommends Creativity and imagination are often required to breathe fresh life into old material
-
The last words and final moments of 40 presidents
The Explainer Some are eloquent quotes worthy of the holders of the highest office in the nation, and others... aren't
-
Senate advances GOP bill that costs more, cuts more
Speed Read The bill would make giant cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, leaving 11.8 million fewer people with health coverage
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custody
Speed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulings
Speed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood funds
Speed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat gone
Speed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says
Speed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders