COMEDIAN Kathy Griffin has held a rambling press conference following the controversy of a video in which she held what looked like a bloody, decapitated head of US President Donald Trump.

Griffin, who has apologised for the bad joke, says she is a victim of bullying at the hands of the Trump family.

“If you don’t stand up, you get run over,” Griffin said. What’s happening to me has never happened in this great country. A sitting president of the US ... is personally trying to ruin my life forever.”

“I’m not afraid of Trump,” she said. “He’s a bully. I’ve dealt with older white guys trying to keep me down my whole career.”

“He wants to mess with me?” the comedian said. “He picked the wrong redhead!”

‘The president and his grown children and the first lady are personally trying to ruin my life forever,” she said. “I am going to make fun of him more now. I am not going to threaten him, I have no desire to harm him.”

The 56-year-old’s lawyer Lisa Bloom said the comedian was contacted by the US Secret Service and said she has retained a criminal lawyer.

“As a result of the first family bullying her, she has been vilified, getting death threats, fired from multiple jobs and had multiple events canceled,” Ms Bloom said.

Griffin has been sacked from CNN’s New Year’s Eve broadcast, a gig she’d held for more than a decade, and criticised by everyone from Chelsea Clinton to good friend, Anderson Cooper, saying that her joke went too far.

The backlash against Griffin continued to grow with two New Jersey theatres announcing that they had cancelled two shows to be headlined by the comedian in the wake of the controversy.

A New Mexico theatre also canned Griffin’s show, while she also lost an endorsement deal with toilet stool company Squatty Potty.

Mr Trump tweeted that Griffin should be “ashamed of herself” and that his 11-year-old son, Barron, was “having a hard time with this”.

Mr Trump’s son, Don Jr, daughter-in-law, Lara, and First Lady, Melania Trump, have all attacked Griffin in the wake of the controversy.

Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2017

This is vile and wrong. It is never funny to joke about killing a president. https://t.co/zIiuKoMyFw — Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) May 30, 2017

For the record, I am appalled by the photo shoot Kathy Griffin took part in. It is clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate. — Anderson Cooper (@andersoncooper) May 31, 2017

Don Jr has posted a dozen tweets encouraging Griffin’s many employers to dump her.

“Dear @CNN, I must have missed your statement banning your commentator #KathyGriffin from future shows. Please resend. Thx,” he wrote before the broadcaster dumped her.

Dear @CNN, I must have missed your statement banning your commentator #KathyGriffin from future shows. Please resend. Thx — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 31, 2017

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie called Griffin “disgusting” and said the photo was “completely outrageous.”

I am sorry. I went too far. I was wrong. pic.twitter.com/LBKvqf9xFB — Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 30, 2017

The comic has faced controversies before for her abrasive humour, but none as widespread as the one generated by Tuesday’s images.

She has since apologised for the video. “I am sorry. I went too far. I was wrong,” she said.