Florence, South Carolina (CNN) Donald Trump said Friday that calling for a ban on Christians would have been less controversial than his proposal to temporarily block Muslims from entering the U.S.
"If I would have said the same thing about Christians, I wouldn't have had the same uproar," Trump said at a rally here. "The whole thing is ridiculous."
Trump also accused President Barack Obama of apologizing to Muslims during a recent visit to a Baltimore mosque after listing off terrorist attacks carried out by radical Islamists -- from 9/11 to the shooting in San Bernardino, California, in December.
"And then President Obama yesterday goes into a mosque and he apologizes," Trump said as his crowd of thousands of supporters erupted in boos. "He goes in and he apologizes."
Trump did not specify what he believed Obama was apologizing for, but Obama made no mention of an apology during his visit on Wednesday to a Baltimore mosque.
The remark is the second time Trump has commented on Obama's visit to a Baltimore mosque on Wednesday, the first of his presidency.
Speaking Thursday on Fox News, Trump appeared to question Obama's faith, saying "maybe he feels comfortable there."
Obama visited the mosque to highlight the contributions Muslim-Americans make to the U.S. in an effort to combat Islamophobia, which Trump has been accused of stoking on the campaign trail.
Trump in December called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on" -- a proposal that was widely panned as Islamophobic by Republicans and Democrats alike.
Trump now only infrequently raises the proposed ban on the campaign trail, and when he does, he only vaguely makes reference to the ban -- assuming his supporters understand what he is discussing.
"Things are going on and I talk temporary, but things are going on that are bad. There's hatred that nobody's ever seen anything like this," Trump said Friday night.