Donald Trump has edged ahead of Hillary Clinton in a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll despite not significantly increasing his level of support in any head-to-head match-up against the former first lady in any recent survey.

According to pollsters, through July 14 Trump topped Clinton 43 percent to 40 percent, figures that are well within the survey's margin of error. By the next morning, Trump's tenuous lead had already started to show signs of slippage.

Tough Times for Clinton

The new numbers come amid a rough patch for Clinton, which include FBI Director James B. Comey's recent harsh criticism of her over her "extremely careless" handling of classified material while serving as secretary of state.

Through it all, support for Trump against Clinton continues to hover at around an average of 40 percent, with most Clinton defectors from past surveys now indicating they plan to vote for a third party candidate.

The poll also failed to measure how much of a boost Clinton might receive from Bernie Sanders' formal endorsement of her, which is expected to become official over the next several days.

Clinton Scoring big With Minority Voters

Presently, the poll finds Clinton leads among Latino voters 51 percent to 30 percent and 77 percent to 3 percent among blacks. Conversely, Trump holds a 53 percent to 24 percent lead among white voters who have not graduated from college.

Among white college grads, Clinton leads 42 percent to 40 percent. To the question of which candidate they expect to win, Clinton holds a 53 percent to 41 percent cushion.

Meanwhile, a recent 50-state survey conducted by Morning Consult finds Clinton still running tops in enough states to easily earn the 270 electoral votes needed to gain the White House. Currently, Clinton leads Trump by a count of 320 to 212.

Researchers found Clinton leading in the critical, battleground states of Florida, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Clinton also holds a comfortable 51 percent to 42 percent cushion over Trump in a recent Pew Research Center poll that largely stems from her overwhelming advantage in minority support.

She bests Trump by a nearly 3-1 margin (66 percent to 24 percent) among Latinos and maintains an even more staggering 91 percent to 7 percent cushion among blacks.

The L.A. Times poll differs from more traditional polls in it relies on a panel of voters for each survey instead of a different group of respondents and utilizes a weighted scale based on the probability a respondent will vote for one candidate over another.

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