But it's a different story in hypothetical general election matchups between the two possible Republican nominees and US President Joe Biden — with DeSantis consistently performing better than Trump, although those results are within the margin of error.
A new Wall Street Journal poll released Friday showed Trump winning 48% of a 12-person GOP field, with DeSantis following with 24% among likely Republican primary voters. Trump comes out on top of a hypothetical one-on-one matchup with DeSantis 51% to 38% too.
Recent polls have shown a similar trend too, including a Quinnipiac University poll from late March that shows Trump at 47% in a 15-person GOP field, followed by DeSantis at 33%, and with Trump posting a similar lead over DeSantis in a one-on-one matchup.
However, a late March poll from the GOP-aligned Echelon Insights shows Biden leading both men by 3 percentage points.
Obviously, it's all so early. Republicans won't pick their nominee for about a year, and DeSantis hasn't even officially announced, let alone spent a year defining himself (and being defined) on the national stage.
But amid all the news about Trump dominating the primary polling over Trump, it's worth remembering that the general election polling shows a different story.