A cartoonist has been accused of racism after he portrayed Michelle Obama as masculine and butch next to a pageant-ready Melania Trump in a controversial drawing.

The cartoon - which has been branded 'racist and misogynistic' - shows a muscular Mrs Obama wearing a green dress with a bulge in the groin area.

Stood next to her is a feminine, smiling Melania Trump in a pink dress and holding a Trump sign.

The artist Ben Garrison tweeted the picture on Friday with the caption: '#InTrumpsAmerica The #FirstLady will be Great Again! #Trump2016.'

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A cartoonist has been accused of racism after he portrayed Michelle Obama as masculine and butch next to a pageant-ready Melania Trump in a controversial drawing

The artist Ben Garrison tweeted the image of Michelle Obama (left) and Melania Trump (right) on Friday

Twitter reacted with fury to the drawing, with dozens of people defending the First Lady.

Femi H tweeted: 'Honestly this is racist as hell and reverts back to stereotypes that black women are angry and masculine.'

Imani Gandy wrote: 'Oddly, they feel the need to denigrate Michelle to prop up Melania, when that's so not the point. But they're too stupid to [understand] that.'

One user tweeted: 'Why you body shaming? Michelle is beautiful and great. And not only that, but a good person. Smh.'

Marcus Wesson added: 'A Princeton and Harvard Law School educated lawyer vs. a Slovenia high-school dropout turned model/goldigger. #yeahright'

Another wrote: 'You know, I'm *just* now noticing the bulge. So it's not only misogynoiristic AF....it's trans-misogynoiristic AF'.

Back off: Twitter reacted with fury to the drawing, with dozens of people defending the First Lady

Garrison later boasted of the new Twitter followers the cartoon had brought him and called his haters 'cry babies'.

'Satire could strip naked, paint itself purple and yell "Satire-satire!" and they still wouldn't see it,' he tweeted.

Garrison is known for his controversial political cartoons and - looking at his work - appears to be a supporter of Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump.

He has previously praised Trump for 'shaking up the neocon-controlled Republican Party', but told Breitbart that he is more of a libertarian than a fan of the GOP.