MAXWELL TANI, Jul. 25, 2015,

Donald Trump is still the clear front-runner of the 2016 GOP presidential field.

A new Economist/YouGov poll released on Friday actually showed Trump gaining support in the last week, despite a controversy over his comments questioning Sen. John McCain's (R-Arizona) status as a "war hero."

According to the poll, the number of registered Republican primary voters who responded that Trump is their first choice jumped from 15% at the beginning of July to 28% last week. Another 10% of voters pick him as their second choice.

That puts the real-estate magnate far ahead of the next Republican candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), as well as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who saw his numbers jump following his campaign announcement earlier this month.

The poll comes only a week after many analysts declared that Trump's comments about McCain would mark a turning point in his campaign.

The line of thinking was that Republican primary voters — who are generally much more hawkish — wouldn't take kindly to Trump's dismissive comments about McCain's status as a prisoner of war.

But so far, no backlash appears to have materialized. In fact, Trump has only gained support in the survey. And the poll found that 32% of GOP primary voters don't think that Trump needed to apologize.

And the YouGov poll isn't the only poll to show that Trump is still comfortably in the lead. A Monmouth University poll of GOP voters in Iowa showed that Trump's support remained unchanged following the McCain flap. And an ABC/Washington Post poll released earlier this week found him nearly doubling Bush's support, as well.

Pollsters have warned that early polls are not reliable indicators of real support.....

[blah, blah, blah All the usual disclaimers they insert here, but their disclaimers really aren't that persuasive. Trump is scoring big and it sure comes across that don't want to admit it. TM]

Read more at:
http://www.businessinsider.com/poll-dona...t-walker-2015-7