EL James blasts Donald Trump supporter who compared Fifty Shades of Grey to his lewd comments

Donald Trump’s supporters have provided a litany of bizarre excuses for the lewd comments he made about women that threaten to de-rail his presidential campaign.

Mr Trump is now fighting to refocus attention away from questions over his leadership in light of the sexist remarks he made about groping women in 2005. A number of Republicans have rescinded their support and on Monday, his official spokesperson had to deny reports his wife Melania was reluctant to appear alongside him in a joint interview, telling The Independent it was "simply untrue".

But the myriad reasons why Mr Trump's comments have proved so offensive appear to have bypassed some surrogates.

The BeyHive swarmed one of the embattled Republican nominee’s advisers on Tuesday following her comparison between Beyonce’s “Formation” lyrics to the grab women “by the p***y” comments Mr Trump made when he would have been 60.

Former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh also stepped forward with an equally bizarre defence over his "dirty talk", emerging with a surprising argument on Monday.

One person who is not pleased by this comparison is the book’s author, EL James, who was at pains to highlight the glaring difference between quotes in her books and Mr Trump’s.

A second Trump supporter chose to stick with this argument on Monday evening when Scottie Nell Hughes claimed “a Fifty Shades of Grey culture in today’s society" was to blame for men speaking in the way he did during an appearance on CNN.

But political commentator Ana Navarro was quick to shut her down: “Everything you have just said is 50 shades of crazy. To compare running for president to an erotic film or an erotic movie, an erotic novel, is crazy.”

However, both women missed one very important point: Mr Trump’s lewd comments were made in 2005. Fifty Shades of Grey was published in 2011.