Poll: Republicans trust Trump over Ryan to lead party

NEW YORK, May 17 (UPI) -- A majority of Republican and Republican-leaning voters trust Donald Trump over House Speaker Paul Ryan to lead the party, according to a new NBC News/SurveyMonkey election tracking poll released Tuesday.

Of the Republicans surveyed, 58 percent said they trust the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, while 39 percent favor the House speaker.

The weekly poll of 14,100 adults was conducted online May 9-15. It included 12,507 registered voters.

Ryan stopped short of endorsing Trump after a face-to-face meeting Thursday on Capitol Hill, but in a joint statement the two said they are "committed" to unifying a fractured Republican Party.

Responding to a question from the media at the Capitol about the poll, Ryan said, "I hope it's Donald Trump. He's got the nomination."

Trump did less well with very conservative voters during the primary. But in the poll, almost twice as many voters who called themselves "very conservative" said they trust Trump over Ryan: 63 percent versus 34 percent.

Voters who identified themselves as conservative also trust Trump (57 percent) over Ryan (40 percent). Moderates favor Trump by a similar margin.

In the poll, 28 percent of the respondents identified themselves as Republicans compared with 28 percent Democrats, 35 percent independent and 1 percent no answer.

In a match-up between Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, those surveyed favored Clinton 48-45 percent, down from 49-44 percent the previous week.