republicans have rallied behind donald trump in recent weeks, as the businessman and reality-tv star cleared an all but assured path to the party<u+2019>s presidential nomination. trump has narrowed democratic candidate hillary clinton<u+2019>s lead to 3 percentage points, according to a new nbc news/wall street journal poll. the margin of error for the poll is plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.









clinton leads trump 46 percent to 43 percent, marking a significantly smaller margin between the two likely nominees and the first time clinton has not led trump by double digits since december. in april, clinton led trump by 11 percentage points, 50 percent to 39 percent, according to a nbc news/wsj poll.









insofar as individual polls mean anything, the swell of support for trump could suggest that republican voters are accepting their presumptive nominee after his win in the indiana primary earlier this month, and after senator ted cruz, trump<u+2019>s final primary opponent, dropped out.









the poll comes out amid new bitterness in the democratic primary battle. nbc points out just 66 percent of democratic voters who prefer sanders will support clinton in a matchup against trump, underscoring the challenge she faces in winning over necessary votes in the general election.









according to the poll, clinton and trump have one thing in common: both are currently the two most unpopular likely presidential nominees, with 54 percent of registered voters who have a negative opinion of clinton and 58 percent having a negative opinion of trump. if nominated at such rates, they would also be the most unpopular candidates since the poll began in 1984.
new poll finds donald trump almost caught up with hillary clinton
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