Wave-making United States of America presidential aspirant Donald Trump has kicked off a firestorm with his call for a ban on Muslims entering the USA.

The leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination made the provocative remarks – just his latest on a range of topics on the campaign trail – after last week’s shooting that left 14 dead in California by a Muslim couple said to have been radicalised.

In a rare primetime speech to the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday, President Barack Obama called the attack in San Bernardino an “act of terrorism” and vowed to defeat extremism, but also stressed that it was not “a war between America and Islam.”

Less than 24 hours later, Trump’s bombastic bid for the White House plumbed what critics called a new low and triggered calls for him to be barred from taking power after he urged a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”

In a speech late Monday, the 69-year-old billionaire real estate mogul and reality television star doubled down on his initial statement.

“We have no choice,” Trump said, saying that Islamist radicals want to kill Americans.

“It’s going to get worse and worse. We’re going to have more World Trade Centers,” he said, referring to the deadly attacks on September 11, 2001.

His comments were condemned by the White House as “totally contrary” to American values and similarly slammed as far afield as London and Cairo, where Egypt’s official religious body Dar al-Iftaa denounced them as “extremist and racist.”

The strongest reaction came in the United States, including from Trump’s rivals in the race to run for the White House in 2016.

•Adapted from an AFP report. Photo shows Dolad Trump.