Voldemort nowhere as bad as Donald Trump: J.K. Rowling

Author J.K. Rowling has waded into the controversy surrounding Donald Trump, saying the US presidential hopeful is worse than Lord Voldemort from her "Harry Potter" book series.

The author took to Twitter to vent her fury at billionaire Trump, who sparked outrage after proposing a ban on Muslims coming to America.

The post sent Twitter into meltdown -- with many comparing Trump to Harry Potter's arch-nemesis -- a comparison Rowling took offence to, reports dailymail.co.uk.

A petition has even started to have Trump banned from Britain.

"How horrible. Voldemort was nowhere near as bad," Rowling tweeted.

The tweet got viral and garnered many responses on the micro-blogging site.

"How could they be confused." tweeted user David Griffith (@theplaguedoc).

"One is a malevolent monster with legions of fanatics & none of his own hair. The other is a wizard."

Another user Will Hackney (@WRHackney) added: "President Voldemort is sounding a lot better than President Trump at this point."

"At least Voldemort was an equal opportunity psychopath," wrote user @Cafferkey_Sean.

Yet another user Rena (@Crimson_Silk) noted: "It's a bit of an insult to Voldemort, tbh."

It wasn't long until the memes began, with a picture of Voldemort wearing a wig, and a campaign poster for endorsing He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named doing the rounds on social media.

Rowling was far from the only person criticising Trump and his comments.

More than 4,000 people signed an online petition, which claims Trump is guilty of "unrepentant, persistent verbal attacks on various groups of people", demanding that Robert Gordon University, in Aberdeen, Scotland, revoke his honorary degree.