TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday night defended President Donald Trump's controversial travel ban on citizens from seven Muslim-majority nations insisting its chaotic implementation was the result of the president's staffers bungling its roll out, and not the president's policy.

"He was ill-served by whoever it was who came up with the way to roll this out," Christie, a longtime Trump friend and adviser, said during an interview on MSNBC's "The 11th Hour with Brian Williams."

The governor would go on to say that Trump, a fellow Republican was "ill-served" by his staff a total of six times in the course of the next 12 minutes on-air, adding that the president should be "rightfully upset with the people who did this."

Christie, who'd been passed over as Trump's running mate, had served as his transition planning chief, but was demoted shortly after the election. The governor had also pressed Trump to serve as his attorney general, but lost out to U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

However, earlier this month, the president told the Wall Street Journal that "at some point we're going to do something with Chris."

On Tuesday night, Christie repeatedly stressed that Trump's senior-most advisers had "let the president down" and that he "deserved better."

He also claimed that Trump did not use religious faith as the organizing principle for his executive order banning people from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the U.S.

"He did not pick these countries based upon their religion," Christie said.

On Saturday, Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani appeared on Fox News and disclosed that Trump had specifically sought a Muslim ban and asked the former New York City mayor to "put a commission together" to "show me the right way to do it legally."

On Tuesday, host Brian Williams pressed Christie and asked how the travel ban was not a de facto Muslim ban as it applied only to Muslim-majority nations and offered specific exemptions for non-Muslim religious minorities.

"The carve outs for religious minorities," the governor answered, "is to make sure that those people who are being discriminated against because of their religious beliefs in those countries can come to America," said Christie.

An Amnesty International report released last October detailed how Shia militias had exhibited a consistent pattern of abuse, torture and execution predominantly against Sunni men and boys fleeing ISIS-held territory in Iraq.

Trump's executive order does not provide exemptions for Iraq's persecuted Sunnis, who make up less than a third of its population, which is nearly 70 percent Shia.

However, on Friday, Trump told the Christian Broadcasting Network that persecuted Christians will be given priority when applying for refugee status in the United States.

Christie went on to defend the president by saying that the confusing and at times contradictory orders provided to immigration and customs officials detain even legal residents of the U.S. "was clearly a mistake," but one "based on bad planning, not on bad policy."

"All I know is, it doesn't make us look good detaining 5 year olds at airports," said Williams to Christie.

Christie, while running for president in November 2015 tsold conservative broadcaster Hugh Hewitt that the risk of terrorism from Syrian refugees was so great, "I don't think that orphans under 5 should be admitted to the United States at this point."

Even as the governor gave the president high marks for his Tuesday nomination of federal judge Neil Gorsuch for associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, he closed by taking a final shot at Trump's inner circle over its failure to protect the president.

"I don't know who was in charge of that roll-out," said Christie, who earlier Tuesday had termed it "terrible."

"This is not throwing anybody under the bus; this is just the truth," the governor said. "When something like that goes wrong, it is not the president's fault."

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.