Donald Trump on Thursday became the first Republican presidential candidate to garner more than 30 percent backing in a nationwide poll, Talking Points Memo reported.

With a nearly 20-percentage point lead over former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, the real-estate tycoon cemented his role as the GOP frontrunner; he managed to almost triple his support since launching his White House bid in June, the publication noted.

Since August, Trump has gained 8-percentage points and now hits a high mark of 32 percent, CNN noted based on the survey it conducted in collaboration with the Opinion Research Corporation. Carson came in at 19 percent, while all remaining Republican contenders logged results in the single digits.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was in third place with 9 percent backing, meaning he lost 4-percentage points since last month; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz came in fourth at 7 percent; and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker were tied at 5 percent.

All other White House hopefuls, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina, scored 3 percent or less in the poll conducted among 474 self-identified Republicans or Republican-leaning independents, which CNN said had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Also on Thursday, meanwhile, Trump insisted that he had not been talking about Fiorina's looks when he suggested that the face of the only female GOP competitor would make her unelectable, CNN noted.

"Look at that face!" Trump had told a Rolling Stone reporter on Wednesday as Fiorina appeared on TV. "Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?"

But in an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo, Trump tried to clarify that he was merely talking about his rival's "persona." "She goes down as one of the worst (CEOs) ever," Trump suggested.

Fiorina, for her part, declined to comment on the billionaire's remarks, though she quipped that she might be "getting under his skin a little bit because I am climbing in the polls."