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House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said there's "more than a 50 percent chance" that Donald Trump wins the GOP nomination. McCarthy: Trump is most likely nominee

Donald Trump is the most likely candidate to win the Republican nomination, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Monday, adding that he believed the race post-South Carolina to be between the Manhattan developer and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

"The bigger advantage is to Trump. I think he’s got the momentum. I think there’s more than a 50 percent chance he’s the nominee. And I think that’s what’s setting in for a lot of people," McCarthy said in an interview with MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Asked whether he could work with Trump as House majority leader, McCarthy replied in the affirmative. When co-host Joe Scarborough pressed and asked if he could say the same for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, McCarthy remarked that he could work with anyone who was elected as the Republican nominee.

Trump's campaign, McCarthy mused, parallels the 2003 recall election of California Gov. Gray Davis, in which actor Arnold Schwarzenegger rode a wave of populism to the governor's mansion.

“There’s a lot of similarities, even down to the fact that they replaced Trump with Arnold on The Apprentice," he said referring to the NBC reality show for which Trump relinquished his hosting duties to seek the presidency. The network chose Schwarzenegger as his replacement.

McCarthy also offered praise for John Kasich, when Scarborough asked him his thoughts on the Ohio governor, who finished fifth in Saturday's South Carolina primary.

“I think John Kasich would be an excellent president. I think he would be — on paper, he seems like the very best," McCarthy remarked, noting that he has always believed that being a governor is a "better training ground" for president than anything else.