Donald Trump is still the leader of the Republican presidential pack, but his position at the top looks to be in peril thanks to the rise of rival Carly Fiorina.
According to a couple of new polls out over the weekend, the former Hewlett-Packard executive has seen her popularity rise following last week’s CNN GOP debate, with a NBC News/SurveyMonkey online poll showing higher marks than The Donald for debate performance and a CNN/ORC national poll showing her cutting into his lead with Republican voters and shooting up to second place.
“It’s obviously a very important moment, because now more people know who I am and we know, based on what’s happened before this debate, that as people come to know me and they understand who I am and what I’ve done and most importantly, what I will do, they tend to support me,” Fiorina said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Fiorina’s debate performance, much like her first showing at the Fox News “kiddie table” in Cleveland, was widely praised as a success and it appears as though The Donald has had it with the Fiorina fawning. Trump took to Twitter last night to slam the rising candidate as a failed politician (all three top performing Republican candidates are non-office holders) and to knock her tenures as a Silicon Vallery CEO:
There is no way that Carly Fiorina can become the Republican Nominee or win against the Dems. Boxer killed her for Senate in California!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2015
Carly Fiorina did such a horrible job at Lucent and HP, virtually destroying both companies, that she never got another CEO job offer! Pres.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2015
I have been leading big in all polls, with two more today, @nbc and @CNN. The NBC poll is more than double next, at 29%. Fiorina has 11%.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2015
Despite his turn of focus to Fiorina, Trump assured Politico that her rise was no sweat to his campaign. “Well I don’t think panic is a word that I’d use,” Trump offered, “but you know, sure, I’d like to stay on top. I have stayed on top. I’ve been very strong with that.”
“You develop a tremendous headache,” if you listen to Fiorina for more than five minutes Trump cracked this morning on “Fox & Friends.”
