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The battle for the Republican Presidential nomination descended into “gutter politics” after the two front runners traded insults over their wives.

Trouble flared when Donald Trump became incensed over the use of a naked picture of his wife Melania by supporters of rival Ted Cruz .

The Make America Awesome campaign used a photograph from a 2000 photoshoot by Britain’s GQ magazine of the former model writing: “Meet Melania Trump. Your next First Lady.”

Underneath they added: “Or, you could support Ted Cruz .”

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The move infuriated the billionaire who took to Twitter to post an unflattering picture of Cruz’s wife Heidi writing: "Lyin' Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a G.Q. shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin' Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!”

(Image: Twitter/@realDonaldTrump)

Trump did not allude to what he was prepared to divulge about the Goldman Sachs executive who is currently on leave while she supports her husband.

Texas Senator Cruz hit back responding on the social media site.

Read more:Donald Trump 'top 10 risk' to the world economy

He wrote: “Pic of your wife not from us. Donald, if you try to attack Heidi, you're more of a coward than I thought. #classless.”

The row then escalated when Heidi defended herself.

She hit back saying “most of the things that Donald Trump says have no basis in reality".

(Image: Getty)

She added: “So we are not worried in the least. I have one job in this campaign and that is to help Ted win this race. I think it is the easiest job in the world.

“All I have to do is speak the truth about what I know about my husband and our family.”

Cruz then backed up his wife at Women’s National Republican Club in New York saying she was “not scared one iota” of Trump.

He described Trump’s attack as “gutter politics” saying he had “reached a new low”.

Cruz then addressed the row further on CNN using a misquoted line from 1995 film The American President starring Michael Douglas.

“If Donald wants to get in a character fight, he’s better off sticking with me ’cause Heidi is way out of his league,” he said.

(Image: Reuters)

The comeback is strikingly similar to a line uttered by Douglas in the film.

“You want a character debate, Bob?” he says.

“You better stick with me, ’cause Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your league.”

The ugly spat, which had already seen the Republican campaign descend in to arguments over which candidate has the biggest manhood, came as Cruz closed in on Trump in the opinion polls.

The business mogul’s pain was compounded further when former Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney continued his anti Trump campaign.

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The heavyweight politician took a swipe at the billionaire mocking him for his foreign-born wives.

Much of Trump’s campaign has been based on his anti-immigration rants and vowing to return jobs back to the American people instead of foreigners.

“Donald Trump has had several foreign wives. It turns out that there really are jobs Americans won’t do,” Romney joked at the Republican Congressional Committee dinner on Tuesday night.

Two of Trump’s three wives were from other countries.

Ivana, Trump’s first wife, was born in Czechoslovakia and his current wife Melania is from Slovenia.