--- title: Polls Show Donald Trump Heading For Defeat description: New polls continue to show Donald Trump trailing Hillary Clinton by double digits in key states and by a large margin nationally. canonical: https://time.com/4453774/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-polls-virginia/ author: Will Drabold article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-16T12:19:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:43.880Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Continues to Lag Behind Clinton in New Polls og:description: New polls have Trump down nine points nationally and 14 percent in Virginia og:url: https://time.com/4453774/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-polls-virginia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f76e388472922f9/6988a288196cf4283e03cdc1/donald-trump-polls-trailing-hillary.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Continues to Lag Behind Clinton in New Polls twitter:description: New polls have Trump down nine points nationally and 14 percent in Virginia twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f76e388472922f9/6988a288196cf4283e03cdc1/donald-trump-polls-trailing-hillary.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Continues to Lag Behind Hillary Clinton in New Polls > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Aug 16, 2016 12:19 PM UTC  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio Aug. 15, 2016. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio Aug. 15, 2016. Eric Thayer—Reuters by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Aug 16, 2016 12:19 PM UTC Another day, another set of polls that show Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton surging ahead. An [NBC/Survey Monkey poll](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/poll-clinton-maintains-big-lead-voters-doubt-trump-s-temperament-n631351?cid=sm%5Ftw) has Clinton leading Donald Trump nationally by nine percentage points, in line with recent polling. And in Virginia, a state Barack Obama won by less than four percent in 2012, Trump is down 14 points, [according to The Washington _Post_.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/trump-unpopularity-fuels-wide-lead-for-clinton-in-new-virginia-poll/2016/08/15/ea0e1540-6307-11e6-be4e-23fc4d4d12b4%5Fstory.html?wpisrc=al%5Falert-local-politics) In the NBC poll, a majority of respondents said they would not use any of the following phrases to describe Trump: “Personality and temperament to serve,” “Cares about people like you,” “Shares your values” or “Honest and trustworthy.” Polls of polls find Clinton has built up a solid lead as top Republicans have r[eportedly begun to consider](http://time.com/4447985/inside-donald-trump-meltdown/) pulling funding from Trump’s campaign. The Washington _Post_ poll had a margin of error of four percent and polled 888 registered voters. The NBC online poll had a margin of error of 1.2 percent from a sample of more than 15,000 self-identified registered voters. \[[NBC _News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/poll-clinton-maintains-big-lead-voters-doubt-trump-s-temperament-n631351?cid=sm%5Ftw) / [_Wa Po_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/trump-unpopularity-fuels-wide-lead-for-clinton-in-new-virginia-poll/2016/08/15/ea0e1540-6307-11e6-be4e-23fc4d4d12b4%5Fstory.html?wpisrc=al%5Falert-local-politics)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4453774/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-polls-virginia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4453774/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-polls-virginia/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Continues to Lag Behind Hillary Clinton in New Polls","datePublished":"2016-08-16T12:19:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:43.880Z","description":"New polls have Trump down nine points nationally and 14 percent in Virginia","url":"https://time.com/4453774/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-polls-virginia/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f76e388472922f9/6988a288196cf4283e03cdc1/donald-trump-polls-trailing-hillary.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Will Drabold","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/will-drabold/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f76e388472922f9/6988a288196cf4283e03cdc1/donald-trump-polls-trailing-hillary.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio","caption":"Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio Aug. 15, 2016.","creditText":"Eric Thayer—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4453774/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-polls-virginia/","name":"Donald Trump Continues to Lag Behind Hillary Clinton in New Polls"}}]}] ```