Robert F Kennedy Jr, the scion of the Democratic Kennedy family whose independent presidential campaign threatened to draw votes from both Republicans and Democrats, has suspended his campaign and endorsed Donald Trump, Paralel.Az reports citing The Guardian.

Kennedy said he would be removing his name from the ballot in critical swing states, but will remain on the ballot in other states and some voters could still cast ballots for him.

In a rambling statement that started three-quarters of a hour behind schedule, Kennedy said he would be giving his support to Trump following a series of conversations with him, the first of which took place days after the Republican nominee survived an assassination attempt on 13 July.

“I was surprised to discover that we are aligned on many key issues,” Kennedy said, explaining that he and Trump met several times. “In those meetings, he suggested that we join forces as a unity party. We talked about Abraham Lincoln’s team of rivals. That arrangement would allow us to disagree publicly and privately and seriously, if need be, on issues over which we differ while working together on the existential issues upon which we are in concordance.”

He also praised Trump’s call for an end to Russia’s war with Ukraine, which he blamed on the US and the Nato alliance.

Kennedy said the war was one of three “great causes” that drove him to enter the race and ultimately to give his support to Trump, with the others being free speech and what he called “the war on our children”, a phrase covering his well-known opposition to vaccines, about which he has peddled conspiracy theories.