A new survey from Fox News suggests that President Trump, despite his ongoing legal troubles, would likely post the best performance in the 2024 general election. This comes as Governor DeSantis is giving up ground to other candidates who are pushing to be the main alternative.

In the general election survey, the poll found that Mr. Trump is the strongest candidate for Republicans, enjoying 41 percent support in a matchup against President Biden, who garnered 44 percent support. The poll suggests that Mr. Trump would lose against the incumbent.

Mr. DeSantis was the next best-performing Republican, carrying 39 percent support to Mr. Biden’s 44 percent. In a matchup between businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and Mr. Biden, Mr. Ramaswamy would carry 38 percent support, to Mr. Biden’s 42 percent.

The former ambassador to the United Nations and governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, and Senator Scott both would carry 36 percent support against Mr. Biden, while Mr. Biden would carry 42 percent support in both matchups, according to the poll. The survey of 1,002 registered voters was conducted for Fox News alongside Beacon Research and Shaw and Company Research. The general election results had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 points.

The survey’s results are a high-quality confirmation of a trend that has been dogging Mr. DeSantis’s campaign throughout the summer — that he is no longer seen as a better general election candidate than Mr. Trump. At the moment, Mr. DeSantis enjoys the support of only 16 percent of Republicans in the GOP primary.

Since Fox News’s June survey, Mr. DeSantis has shed 6 points of support in the Republican primary. Since February, when his campaign posted its most favorable results against Mr. Trump, he has shed 12 points. Mr. DeSantis’s loss of support comes despite myriad efforts from his campaign to launch a “reset” effort, which had the aim of reversing his downward trend in the polls.

Coinciding with Mr. DeSantis’s efforts to regain momentum heading into the primaries next year, Mr. Ramaswamy has more than doubled his support in the GOP primary since the June survey. Mr. Ramaswamy currently enjoys about 11 percent support of primary voters who responded to the survey. In June, that number was 5 percent.

“The story here is Ramaswamy,” pollster Daron Shaw told Fox News. “He is the first candidate to break from the pack to challenge DeSantis, and while he’s a long way from threatening Trump, he’s taking steps in the right direction.”

Apparently playing into Mr. Trump’s hand in the primaries are Republicans’ opinions of Mr. Trump’s criminality relating to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Among GOP primary voters, 14 percent say they think Mr. Trump did “something illegal,” while 33 percent say they think he did “something wrong, not illegal,” and a majority — 51 percent — say he did “nothing seriously wrong.”

For comparison, among all respondents, 53 percent say Mr. Trump “did something illegal,” 20 percent say he “did something wrong but not illegal,” and 24 percent say he “didn’t do anything seriously wrong” in his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Americans are also increasingly seeing the treatment of Mr. Trump by the Department of Justice as less motivated by “partisan politics.” In August, 51 percent said the department’s treatment of Mr. Trump is motivated by politics, compared to 46 percent who said it isn’t. In June, 55 percent said the department’s treatment of Mr. Trump is motivated by partisan politics, compared to 41 percent who said it isn’t.