Yahoo Finance 
Trump and Clinton are leading the polls even though most Americans don't trust them
(REUTERS/Jim Young) Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband, former US President Bill Clinton, at the 37th Harkin Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa, in September 2014.
Americans think Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is about as trustworthy as Donald Trump.
According to a new Quinnipiac University poll published Thursday, 57% of voters do not view Clinton as "honest and trustworthy," compared to the 37% who believe that Clinton is trustworthy.
Trump's numbers are almost identical: 58% of Americans view the GOP presidential candidate as not honest and trustworthy, compared to 33% who say they trust him.
This isn't the first Quinnipiac poll to show Clinton's trust deficiency among voters.
In June, a Quinnipiac poll of key swing-state voters showed that the majority of voters in states like Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania are not convinced of Clinton's trustworthiness. Polls of the states of Colorado, Iowa, and Virginia also displayed similar findings last week.
For its part, the Clinton campaign is banking on her numbers improving as more Americans tune into the race and examine the candidates thoroughly.
Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told Time last month that he believes Clinton's trustworthiness will improve as voters start to consider each candidate's positions on key issues.
“We are just now launching the campaign in earnest and the key question in this campaign as it relates to trust is, who can everyday Americans trust to go to bat for them,” Mook said.
“I am absolutely confident when she lays out her case it will be very clear to people that she will be that champion to stand up for them every single day.”
(AP)
Still, Clinton may have a tougher time changing these numbers because she's been a high-profile public figure for so long. Only about 17% of Americans, according to a recent CBS poll, haven't heard enough about her to form an opinion.
And Thursday's poll also shows that many Americans are not convinced that Clinton is ready to go to bat for them, either. A majority — 52% — of voters said they believe that Clinton "doesn't care about their needs or problems."
Part of Clinton's problem may be connected to a general distrust of the family that's existed since for decades. Questions about the former president's trustworthiness first emerged in the 1992 election. And as his presidency continued, many polls showed that fewer and fewer voters trusted Bill Clinton.
Since then, the Clintons have weathered numerous controversies — from the Monica Lewinsky affair, to the Whitewater real-estate controversy, to the flap around Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
But while Clinton's trustworthiness numbers present one of the first major obstacles for her campaign to overcome with voters, Trump faces significant hurdles of his own.
According to HuffPost Pollster, at 43%, Trump's unfavorability rating is far higher than any other Republican candidate. It could signal that though Trump is leading Republican polls, he may fail to pick up voters who prefer other candidates when they drop out of the race.
"Republicans say Trump is honest and Democrats say Clinton is honest, but among all voters, both candidates come up short," said Tim Malloy, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll. "How can you become a general election front-runner if most voters don't trust you?"
NOW WATCH: This drummer created a whole song by only using the sound of coins
More From Business Insider
