Iron Trump: Donald surges past Carson in new polls

Donald Trump is proving himself an iron man in the political endurance race for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

Three new polls show the billionaire extending a healthy lead over retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson.

A five-day rolling poll by Reuters showed Trump winning 36 percent of Republican primary voters to Carson's 14.6 percent.
A University of Massachusetts survey tallied the two at 31 percent and 22 percent respectively.
A Morning Consult poll released Tuesday gave found the real-estate mogul pulling in 38 percent to Carson's 19 percent.

Trump's reputation for not pulling rhetorical punches is benefiting him with voters who are concerned about the Islamic State group.

On Monday, Trump blasted President Obama's ISIS strategy during an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box," saying: "We have a president who just doesn’t get it. He's weak and ineffective."

Trump added, "We're going to have to knock [ISIS] out and knock them out hard."

"Everybody else keeps talking about what should’ve been done and what could’ve been done [about ISIS], instead of their opinion of what they would do now," Trump supporter Mildred Borden, 58, of Pennsylvania told Reuters Tuesday.

Democrat Glenn Matlosz, 71, of Audubon, New Jersey, agreed.

"He's telling it as it is. He's not mincing any words. There is no gobbledygook there. Everybody else is squawking," Matlosz said.

Republican strategist Steve Schmidt said voters listening to Trump see him as a man conviction on national security issues.

"Sure, if [former Gen.] Colin Powell was running, it would benefit him. Or if [former Gen.] David Petraeus was a candidate, it would benefit him," Schmidt told Reuters. But which of these candidates has an actual plan as opposed to piecemeal tactical solutions or platitudes? [Voters] default to the guy who with the most conviction says, 'I'm going to bomb the s--t out of them,' – Mr. Donald Trump."

Trump has also made headlines in recent days and weeks because of his opposition to President Obama's plan to bring as many as 10,000 Syrian refugees to the U.S. by 2017.

On Monday, Trump told a Knoxville, Tennessee, rally he believes bringing Syrian refugees to America is "absolutely insanity," and they should stay in the Mideast: "What I'd like is ... build a big beautiful safe zone and you have whatever it is so people can live, and they'll be happier."

At an Oct. 1 rally in New Hampshire, he also vowed to send Syrian refugees back to their homeland if he is elected president: "I'm putting the people here on notice that are coming here from Syria as part of this mass migration that if I win, if I win, they’re going back," Trump said. "They're going back, I'm telling you, they're going back."

A sampling of 318 likely Republican primary voters were interviewed Nov. 5-13 for the UMass' poll, with a 6.4 percent margin of error.

Morning Consult's tracking poll surveyed 2,001 registered voters Nov. 13-16 with a plus or minus 2 percent margin for error.

Reuters Polling surveyed 1,259 respondents Nov 13-Nov 17.