Donald Trump defended his call to ban all Muslims from entering the USA, claiming it was not to do with religion, but security.

The GOP frontrunner appeared on The O'Reilly Factor and on ABC's Life with Kelly and Michael on Wednesday to defend his plan for preventing Muslims from entering the US.

He denied insulting Islam and claimed "This is about security. It's not about religion" on the O'Reilly Factor.

He claimed that his temporary ban was to essential in order to overcome this "very, very serious problem" and the threat ISIS posed to the US.

"Maybe it's not politically correct to do it, but somebody had to bring it up. And a lot of people are very thankful I did it."

O'Reilly suggested the ban would be detrimental, damaging relations with moderate Muslim countries such as Jordan and Egypt.

Trump was unperturbed, claiming that his proposed actions were widely supported and necessary. On Life with Kelly and Michael, he insisted that "This has nothing to do with religion. It's about safety."

"We have a president that doesn't have a clue. He doesn't know what's going on. All I'm doing is bringing a situation to the forefront that everybody is talking about and nobody wants to do anything about it."

Trump's proposed ban of Muslims entering the USA has been met with global outrage, including an online petition in the United Kingdom proposing to ban him from entering the country. It reached over 130,000 signatures in less than 24 hours, enough to be read in parliament.