Ohio Governor John Kasich on Wednesday dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination in the run-up to the United States elections, paving the way for controversial candidate Donald Trump to comfortably grab the spot. The Republican field started out with 16 candidates, with business tycoon Trump an outsider with an unconventional and often polarising style. However, Trump's vitriolic rhetoric caught the nation's attention and gave him huge wins at state primaries, forcing all his opponents to quit one by one. Kasich's decision means Trump is more or less assured of the nomination at July's Republican convention, though senior party members have said they will not support him.

Addressing his supporters for the last time, Kasich said, "...as I suspend my campaign today I have renewed faith, deeper faith, that the Lord will show me the way forward and fulfill the purpose of my life." Kasich, who distinguished himself from his Republican rivals by his somewhat moderate stands and fewer direct attacks on his opponents, had only managed to win his home state of Ohio during the primaries.

In his first interview as the presumptive Republican candidate, Trump continued to play fast and loose with facts, reiterating a roundly disproved claim that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. He also refused to condemn a recent antisemitic attack on a journalist who wrote an article about his wife, and appeared to maintain his view that Muslims should be kept out of America, The Guardian reported.