Republicans in two states have cancelled plans to hold presidential preference selections before the 2020 election.

In meetings on Saturday, Republican parties in South Carolina and Kansas cancelled their presidential nomination contests. Nevada is still debating.

Arizona is expected to make a decision later in the month.

Several challengers to Donald Trump have emerged, including Bill Weld, a former Massachusetts governor, and Joe Walsh, a former Illinois congressman. Others may join them.

The challengers quickly hit back, with Mr Walsh saying: “This can’t happen in America. Donald Trump is not a king. You cannot just eliminate elections. We are going to fight it in these four states. If they proceed and do this we are going to fight them with everything we've got legally."

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Mr Weld added: "Donald Trump, by turns arrogant and paranoid, has made no secret of the fact that he wishes to be crowned as president rather than elected. That might be fine in a monarchy, but we overthrew ours two centuries ago.”

But it wouldn't be unusual move by the party of the White House incumbent seeking a second term.

In years past, both Republicans and Democrats have scrapped state nominating contests when an incumbent president from their party ran for a second term.

Arizona's Secretary of State's office said the Democratic Party did not participate in the presidential preference election in 1996 and 2012. But a spokesperson for the state Democratic Party said it did hold caucuses during both Barack Obama's and Bill Clinton's re-election.

In 2012, as the only candidate on the ballot, Mr Obama received all 70 pledged delegates in the caucuses.