US election polling: Donald Trump now beating Hillary Clinton in head-to-head race

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is two points ahead of his Democrat counterpart Hillary Clinton in a head-to-head poll.

The Rasmussen Reports telephone survey put the GOP candidate ahead of Clinton at 41 per cent to her 39 per cent also finding that Trump does better with Democrats than Clinton does with Republicans.

The results came after a poll of 1,000 likely voters put Clinton and Trump on level pegging with 38 per cent each in a 27/28 April survey, with 6 per cent stating they would not vote at all if a Trump versus Clinton election occurs.

However, when those voters were not given the option to abstain from the November presidential election, Trump polled better than Clinton – edging out in front of the Democrat hopeful by 2 per cent for the first time since October 2015.

Despite the poll only placing Trump ahead of Clinton if the option to stay at home was removed from voters, and with 15 per cent of people polled preferring other candidates to either Clinton or Trump, The Donald gave the survey a big thumbs up, tweeting that he would beat 'crooked Hillary' at the election.

The two frontrunners are looking increasingly likely to take the nominations for their respective parties, with 91 per cent of Democrats saying Clinton will get the party's nomination and 89 per cent of Republicans seeing Trump win the GOP candidacy.

Having excelled in the 26 April primaries, Trump now has 954 delegates of the 1,237 needed to win the Republican nomination, while Clinton, winning four out of five of the same primaries, now has 2,151 delegates of the necessary 2,383, with more than 500 super-delegates in her corner.

In Trump's case, closest rival Ted Cruz has no hope of winning enough delegates now for a first ballot victory, but if Trump does not manage to get 1,237 delegates to win the nomination on a first vote, Cruz has a chance of winning on a second ballot vote.

The 3 May Indiana primary will carry a lot of weight for both candidates, with 92 Democrat delegates up for grabs and 57 Republican delegates – potentially giving the frontrunners a big push forward ahead of the highly anticipated California primary on 7 June.