Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg used a TV appearance to fire back at recent homophobic comments from conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

When asked by host Ellen DeGeneres to respond to Mr Limbaugh’s remarks, Mr Buttigieg responded: “I guess he just has a different idea of what makes a man than I do.”

Mr Limbaugh recently questioned on air whether the US electorate would accept the idea of a gay president, saying: “OK, how’s this going to look? 37-year-old gay guy kissing his husband on stage, next to Mr Man, Donald Trump.”

After his words were condemned across the political spectrum, he claimed that Donald Trump had called him to say he should “never apologise” for what he said.

In his appearance on Ms DeGeneres’s show, Mr Buttigieg focused on the question of masculinity, and the idea that a man kissing his husband might be thought “weak”.

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“Since when is strength about the chest-pounding and the loud-mouthed guy at the end of the bar?” he asked.

“The strongest people I know are not the loudest people. They’re the ones who have the deepest sense of who they are, and what they value, and what they care about.”

Mr Buttigieg then paid tribute to his husband Chasten, who was sat in the front row of the audience.

“And one of those people by the way, one of the strongest people I know, is my husband, Brad Pitt.”

During his interview with Ms DeGeneres, Mr Buttigieg also questioned to what extent Mr Trump meets the traditional definition of masculinity: “You know, when I was packing my bags for Afghanistan, Donald Trump was working on season seven of Celebrity Apprentice.”