NBC cut ties with U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump and the "Miss USA" and "Miss Universe" pageants on Monday after the real estate developer and TV personality made comments insulting Mexicans earlier this month.

The pageants, part of a 50/50 joint venture with NBCUniversal for the English-language broadcasts that together have in the past year attracted 13 million viewers, would no longer air on NBC "due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants" the company said in a press statement.

The decision by Comcast Corp-owned NBC was announced four days after Spanish-language Univision said it would not air the Miss USA pageant on July 12 and severed ties to the Miss Universe Organization. Trump's lawyer said the billionaire would sue.

Trump, in announcing on June 16 that he was seeking the Republican Party nomination for the November 2016 presidential election, described migrants from Mexico to the United States as drug-runners and rapists.