Trump's support surges nationally

Donald Trump's support has surged and he is now running nearly even with Democrat Hillary Clinton among likely US voters, a dramatic turnaround since he became the Republican party's presumptive presidential nominee, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released yesterday.

The results could signal a close fight between the two likely White House rivals as Americans make up their minds ahead of the Nov 8 election to succeed Democratic President Barack Obama. As recently as last week, Clinton led Trump by around 13 points in the poll.

In the most recent survey, 41 percent of likely voters supported Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, and 40 percent backed Trump, with 19 percent not decided on either yet, according to the online poll of 1,289 people conducted from Friday to Tuesday. The poll had a credibility interval of about 3 percentage points.

The results reflect a big increase in support for Trump since he knocked out US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Governor John Kasich last week to become the last Republican in the White House race.

Presidential elections are not decided by the national popular vote but by the Electoral College, which is based on state-by-state results.

Opinions are likely to change over the next six months as American voters become inundated with hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign advertising, highly publicized debates and a pair of party conventions.

The poll report came after Clinton lost the primary to Bernie Sanders in economically struggling West Virginia on Tuesday, possibly signaling trouble for her in industrial states in the November general election.

The defeat slowed Clinton's march to the nomination, but she is still heavily favored to become the Democratic candidate in the Nov 8 election to face the presumptive Republican nominee.

Donald Trump won contests in West Virginia and Nebraska handily on Tuesday.

Sanders, who has vowed to take his campaign all the way to the Democrats' July 25-28 convention in Philadelphia, has repeatedly said he is the stronger candidate to beat Trump in November, and following his West Virginia win, he emphasized economic themes.

Trump is set to meet with party leaders in the US Congress today, including US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan.

After Ryan said last week that he was not ready to endorse Trump, the presumptive nominee said he would have to decide whether he still wanted Ryan to preside over the party's July convention.