Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump continues to surge in the polls following his controversial hosting gig on Saturday Night Live last week and the third Republican primary debate on Tuesday.

Trump Leading the Pack

Earlier this month, polls showed that the billionaire businessman was running neck-in-neck with fellow 2016 GOP hopeful Ben Carson on Nov. 6. However, since then he has gained 17 percentage points and now leads the Republican pack of candidates with 42 percent of support among likely Republican voters, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos presidential poll. On the other hand, the survey shows that Carson's support has taken a slight dive.

Trump vs. Carson

In addition to gaining momentum with likely primary voters, Trump also holds a significant edge over Carson among all Republicans, with 34 percent compared to Carson's 20 percent of support.

Trump vs. Clinton

However, polling data on RealClearPolitics shows that Trump is trailing behind Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical match up, 43.3 to 47.7.

Despite being praised for his last two debate performances, the poll shows that support for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has remained stagnant, and that about 10 percent of likely Republican primary voters are backing him.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is also not doing too well with primary as only four percent say they would support him.

On Thursday, Trump went on a 95-minute tirade blasting Carson and his supporters as "stupid." While speaking at a rally at Iowa Central Community College, he equated Carson's admitted childhood "pathological temper" to the illness of a child molester. Trump also questioned the retired neurosurgeon's religious awakening, which he describes in his book "Gifted Hands."

Trump went on to say that Carson's own descriptions of his "pathological temper" as a young man is a "big problem because you don't cure that. That's like, you know, I could say, they say you don't cure -- as an example, child molester. You don't cure these people. You don't cure the child molester." Trump added that "pathological is a very serious disease."