Donald Trump beats Hillary Clinton in polls on televised Commander in Chief Forum appearances

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has beat Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton in several opinion polls regarding NBC's Commander in Chief Forum, screened in the US on Matt Lauer's Today Show.

The presidential candidates each took part in a 15-minute question and answer session on the military, veterans and foreign policy on Wednesday (7 September 2016), with several polls showing viewers felt Trump performed better.

The GOP candidate shared several of the polls on his Twitter feed, including one from NBC News that had Trump at 61% and Clinton at 39% (the figure from NBC is now Trump at 63% and Clinton at 37%) and one from Heavy.com putting Trump on 70% and Clinton on 28%.

It comes as a boost for the Republican, despite pundits suggesting neither came out swinging. Trump praised Putin and repeated his critique of men and women in the military together as encouraging rape, while Clinton was accused of 'corrupting national security' by a veteran and interrupted by host Lauer.

Trump has just begun to see some positive numbers in the polls after almost a month of low ratings following a public war of words with the Gold Star family of a Muslim soldier killed in Iraq.

He is still lingering several points behind Clinton in the latest polls, but came out on top in several polls on Thursday (8 September), and has been seeing an increase in support from independent voters, particularly in the country's Rust Belt states.

But the real challenge will come as the candidates enter the live debates, the first one of which is set for 26 September.