Trump forces Rubio OUT: The Donald wins THREE primaries, crushing Marco in his home state of Florida with 45% but Kasich wins Ohio and Missouri is a virtual TIE with counting suspended

Donald Trump stormed to victory in Florida, Illinois and North Carolina, but John Kasich won his home state of Ohio
Marco Rubio dropped out of race after being trounced in Florida and he said he'd join the 'Stop Trump' movement
Missouri was too close to call with 99.9% of the votes counted, and only 1,726 votes separating Cruz and Trump
In Florida Trump secured 99 delegates by taking 45.7% of the votes to Rubio's 27.02%
Triumphant Kasich scored his first win of the campaign with 46.78% of the votes to Trump's 35.67% in Ohio
Trump won in Illinois with 38.88% of the votes and North Carolina with 40.24% of the votes
The Donald initially praised Rubio at victory rally, but later twisted the knife over his negative ad campaign
Ted Cruz insisted that there were only two plausible candidates in the race, despite Kasich's win
Hillary Clinton won the Democratic races in Florida, North Carolina, Illinois Ohio and seemed set to take Missouri - a crushing blow for her only rival Bernie Sanders
As it stands, Trump has 621 delegates, Cruz 396 and Kasich 138. 1,237 are needed to secure the nomination

By DAVID MARTOSKO, US POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM IN PALM BEACH, FLORIDA

PUBLISHED: 18:12 EST, 15 March 2016 | UPDATED: 09:42 EST, 16 March 2016

Donald Trump took another step closer to the Republican nomination on Tuesday night with crushing victories in Florida and Illinois, and a narrower victory in North Carolina - cementing his GOP front-runner status and knocking Marco Rubio out of the race.

In Missouri, the race went down to the wire between Cruz and Trump, with The Donald only 1,726 votes ahead (0.18 per cent) out of 762,000 when counting stopped early on Wednesday.

The state was judged too close to call, and the tiny margin of less than one per cent means second-place Cruz could challenge the result if it stands.

Florida Sen. Rubio suspended his White House campaign after surrendering his home state to Trump, who won 45% of the vote to his 27%. Trump tipped his hat to the man 25 years his junior, and then slammed him for spending so much money to try to defeat him.

'I want to congratulate Marco Rubio on having run a really tough campaign,' Trump told a crowd of socialites and journalists at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach. 'He's tough. He's smart, and he's got a great future.

'But I have to say, nobody has ever, ever in the history of politics, received the amount of negative advertising I have,' Trump carped.

Most of it, he claimed, was 'false, vicious, horrible'.

'It added up to over $40million' in Florida alone, Trump said. 'And you explain it to me, because I can't. My numbers went up!'

'We're going to do a lot of trips over the next month,' he pledged. 'And we're going to have a lot of great victories.'

Ohio Gov. John Kasich won in his home state, offsetting what might otherwise have been a devastating night for the rest of the GOP field. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz – like Rubio – won no primaries all night.

In the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton struck a devastating blow against Bernie Sanders by winning Florida, Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina and Missouri.

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Donald Trump added 99 delegates to his Republican National Convention total on Tuesday night with a crushing victory in Florida's Republican primary election - ending Marco Rubio's bid for the White House. He also took home victories in Illinois and North Carolina

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Landslide victory: In Florida Trump secured 45.7% of the votes to Rubio's 27.02%. His victory was also comfortable in Illinois, narrower in North Carolina. He lost Ohio to John Kasich and Missouri is still too close to call with 99% of the vote counted

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