U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses a joint press conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (not seen in the picture) after their meeting in Mexico City, capital of Mexico, on Aug. 31, 2016. (Xinhua/Str)
WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Republican presidential nominee Dorald Trump leads his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by 19 points, 55 percent to 36 percent, among military and veteran voters, according to a poll issued Wednesday.
The two candidates will each spend a half-hour Wednesady night talking about their military readiness at an event for veterans and active service members.
A sizable number of these voters say they would not be confident in Clinton or Trump's ability to be an effective commander-in-chief of the nation's military, though a slight majority would be confident in Trump (53 percent), the NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking Poll finds.
Overall, 47 percent of voters who are currently serving or have previously served in the U.S. military said they would not be confident in Trump's ability to serve as an effective commander-in-chief of the U.S. military.
Among all registered voters, 59 percent would not be confident in his ability to serve as commander-in-chief of the military and just 39 percent would feel confident, the poll shows.
Though Trump comfortably earns the support of military-affiliated voters overall, Clinton is perceived more favorably on the use of nuclear weapons (44 percent) while a quarter of them said they would not trust either her or Trump to handle these issues.
Also on Wednesday, Clinton's campaign announced that 95 retired generals and admirals have endorsed her presidential bid, one day after a group of 88 retired generals and admirals signed an open letter backing Trump to reverse the "hollowing out" of the U.S. military.
The Obama administration has been criticized for overseeing a shrinking of the Pentagon's budget -- a cumulative 15 percent since 2011, according to a Politifact report.
The report attributes the reduced military budget partly to the removal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and partly to sequestration: across-the-board cuts that automatically came into place when both parties failed to strike a spending deal in Congress in 2011.
However, Trump's advantage among military voters is nothing new, local analysts say, noting the military's political leanings have swayed to the right in recent decades.
In an informal survey by the Military Times earlier this year, 54 percent of active duty troops, reservists, and National Guardsmen chose Trump over the former secretary of state.
The latest NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking Poll was conducted online from Aug. 29 through Sept. 4 among 32,226 registered voters, including 3,358 who have previously served or are currently serving in the U.S. military.
