Donald Trump leads in USA Today poll as voters call describe him as an 'idiot'

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The Donald pulls 10 points ahead of rivals Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson in new Suffolk University/USA Today poll
While Republicans support him, his favorability ranks the lowest, with a pollster calling him a 'Jekyll and Hyde candidate'
Backing this up, Americans used 22 not-so-nice terms to describe Trump before saying he was 'entertaining' and 'successful'

By Nikki Schwab, U.s. Political Reporter For Dailymail.com

Published: 11:11 EST, 1 October 2015 | Updated: 13:49 EST, 1 October 2015

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The good news for Donald Trump is that a new poll has him a good 10 points ahead of GOP rivals Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina.

This morning's Suffolk University/USA Today poll has 23 percent of Republican primary voters choosing The Donald, with 13 percent supporting Carson and 13 percent selecting Fiorina.

The bad news, however, comes from the word association game part of the poll. The top set of words respondents connected to the billionaire were 'idiot,' 'jerk,' stupid' and 'dumb,' followed with the largest chunk of survey respondents simply calling him 'arrogant.'

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Idiot? Jerk? Stupid? Dumb? A new Suffolk University/USA Today poll reveals the top words Americans associate with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump

DONALD VOCABULARY: Suffolk University/USA Today poll found a wealth of venom among Americans who are asked about Donald Trump, with words like 'arrogant,' stupid,' 'dumb' and 'jerk' showing up prominently in a cloud of words they most frequently came up with

Americans chose 22 words, including 'buffoon,' 'clown' and 'bombastic' before mentioning traits 'entertaining' and 'successful'

Other terms folks associated with Trump: 'crazy' and 'nuts,' followed by 'buffoon,' 'clown,' 'comical' and 'joke,' with the next set of words suggesting people view him unfavorably and that they 'dislike him.'

The negative terms continue with people listing 'egoistical,' 'narcissist' and 'selfish' as Trump traits and then 'bombastic,' 'showoff' and 'pompous,' followed by 'outspoken,' 'frank' and 'opinionated.'

Finally, 22 terms later, are some words that Trump might actually appreciate – 2.9 percent of respondents associated him with being 'entertaining' and an 'entertainer,' while 2.7 percent of people said he was a 'businessman' and 'successful.'

Adding context to these numbers and words, David Paleologos, the director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston, pointed to Trump's favorability rating of just 27 percent.

'Despite topping the Republican ballot test, Trump's overall favorability numbers should be of concern to this campaign,' Paleologos said in a statement.

See more of the latest news and updates on Donald Trump

Trump's favorability rating is the lowest of the 10 candidates pollsters asked about, with 61 percent of respondents saying they aren't a fan.

'Trump is the Jekyll and Hyde candidate,' Paleologos said. 'Strong when among conservative voters, but viewed much differently once Democrats and independents are in the mix.'

This poll skews slightly Democratic with 36.6 percent of respondents identifying as Democrats, 30 percent Republican and 30.7 percent independent.

Suffolk University released word associations for just one other candidate: Fiorina, which paint a more complicated picture.

The top terms that respondents said they connected with the surging former Hewlett-Packard CEO were 'smart,' 'intelligent' and 'knowledgeable.' But the second set of words people thought of were 'dishonest,' 'liar,' and 'untrustworthy.'

Pollsters also asked questions related to Ben Carson's controversial comments on Muslims.

CARLY WORD SALAD: Fiorina's name brings up a clash of word cultures among Americans, with many considering her 'knowledgeable' and 'intelligent' but a sizable group concerned that she's 'unqualified' and 'untrustworthy'

MIXED MESSAGING: Americans found Carly Fiorina to be a mix of traits, naming 'knowledgeable' and 'trustworthy' as words they'd use to describe her as well as 'dishonest' and 'unqualified'

'I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation,' Carson said during an interview on Meet the Press. 'I absolutely would not agree with that.'

Americans sort of agreed with that, with 52.9 percent saying they didn't think a Muslim 'could' be elected president of the United States, compared with 39.2 who could see it happening.

Respondents were split on whether they'd vote for a qualified Muslim with about 49 percent saying yes and 40 percent saying no.

Interestingly, 40 percent of those polled also said they wouldn't vote for a qualified atheist, while 53 percent said they would vote for an atheist.

Helping out Fiorina and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, about 95 percent of respondents said they'd vote for a woman for president.

Beyond the top three candidates, all political insurgents, about 9 percent liked Marco Rubio, about 8 percent were behind Jeb Bush, 5,5 percent were for Ted Cruz, John Kasich, followed by Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee all hovered around 2 percent.

Bobby Jindal got a little more than 1 percent, Lindsey Graham and Chris Christie each got about a half of one percent and not a single survey respondent selected George Pataki nor Rick Santorum.