Watch: Ron DeSantis drops out of White House race

So. Farewell then Ron DeSantis. The Florida Governor tonight bowed to the inevitable and announced he was dropping out of the race to be the Republican nominee for the White House. In a four-and-a-half-minute long address on Twitter/X, DeSantis declared that ‘it’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance’.

‘Following our second-place finish in Iowa, we’ve prayed and deliberated on the way forward,’ he said. ‘If there was anything I could do to produce a favourable outcome, more campaign stops, more interviews, I would do it. But I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources. We don’t have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign.’

He added of Trump, ‘He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, or repackage formed of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.’