A major American online news and digital media organization has announced it would start covering US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign for the Republican nomination as “entertainment news” instead of political.

The Huffington Post on Friday dismissed the business magnate and former reality TV star’s presidential campaign as a “sideshow.”

“After watching and listening to Donald Trump since he announced his candidacy for president, we have decided we won’t report on Trump’s campaign as part of The Huffington Post’s political coverage,” the organization’s Washington bureau chief Ryan Grim and editorial director Danny Shea wrote in a statement.

“Instead, we will cover his campaign as part of our Entertainment section. Our reason is simple: Trump’s campaign is a sideshow. We won’t take the bait. If you are interested in what The Donald has to say, you’ll find it next to our stories on the ‘Kardashians’ and ‘The Bachelorette,”’ the statement said.

In a statement released on Friday, Trump's campaign hit back, describing the Huffington Post as a "glorified blog" and a “clown show.”

"The only clown show in this scenario is the Huffington Post pretending to be a legitimate news source," the statement said.

Trump has come under severe criticism for his inflammatory comments about Mexican immigrants in the US, calling them drug dealers and “rapists.”

During his presidential campaign announcement on June 16, the billionaire businessman emphasized the need to curtail immigration from the southern border and slammed Mexican immigrants for "bringing crime" to the US.

His brash rhetoric hasn’t hurt him at the polls, however. The latest Fox News poll out Thursday showed Trump as the GOP front-runner.

Trump leads the field of 16 Republican candidates with 18 percent of likely Republican primary voters saying they would vote for him, up from 11 percent who supported him in a June survey.