The last four weeks have evidently not been kind to Donald Trump's poll numbers. According to the most recent survey released by Public Policy Polling, Trump support has taken a nosedive since mid-April from 26% of Republican voters, to the current level of 9%. On April 15th Trump was actually the leader among the potential GOP candidates for president. At the time Trump held a fairly significant nine-point lead over serious contenders like Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. Trump now places fifth in the polling behind Huckabee, Romney Gingrich, and Sarah Palin. Trump is now tied with Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) who trump once claimed would never get elected president (Video to the left).
The poll did not explain the reasons for Trump's falling numbers, but one could certainly make an educated guess based on the news headlines since the last poll. In mid-April Trump was strongly pushing the "birther conspiracy theory." Trump said he had "serious questions" as to whether President Obama even had a birth certificate, and also stated he had investigators in Hawaii who were discovering new information on the case. Two weeks ago President Obama released his "long-form" birth certificate for the world to see, and Trump tried to take credit for the disclosure. Trump never revealed what information his investigators have found.
On April 30th Trump attended the White House Correspondents Dinner at the invitation of The Washington Post. At the dinner President Obama made fun of the birth certificate issue, and also made fun of Trump extensive "experience and credentials" in leading a reality television show. President Obama was followed by Seth Meyers, who made a number of jokes about Trump such as, "Donald Trump said that he was running for president as a Republican. That's funny, because I thought he was running as a joke."
The cameras at the event focused in on Trump, who did not appear to take the jokes well. Later some people at Trump's table said he was "visibly upset" by the jokes. Later Trump would say that Meyers was not funny, and that Meyers stuttered too much. To some, Trump appeared to unable to take back what he was dishing out to President Obama over the previous weeks.
Finally, other Republicans like Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) have also criticized Trump as something of a sideshow, who is actually destructive to the Republican Party. Many conservatives believe Trump is not a true Republican given his past support for the Canadian health care system in America, and a tax hike in order to pay of the national debt.
This most recent poll from PPP suggests that Trump may be the very definition of a "flash-in-the-pan" candidate who does not have what it takes to be taken seriously to a large number of voters. If Trump was hoping for ratings hike for his television show Celebrity Apprentice, he may similarly be disappointed as the show's ratings have also gone down significantly over the past few weeks.
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