President-elect Donald Trump claimed Friday night that African-Americans came through for him "big league" in the November election and said those who stayed home were "almost as good" as those who voted for him.

Trump's comments came during a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the latest stop on an ongoing "thank you" tour of states where the Republican prevailed against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Nationally, exit polls showed Clinton overwhelmingly winning African-Americans over Trump, 89 percent to 8 percent. Still, that was a somewhat smaller margin than President Barack Obama enjoyed in his 2012 reelection against Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Exit polls from that race showed Obama garnering 93 percent of the black vote compared to Romney's 6 percent.

"The African-American community was great to us," Trump told his crowd Friday night. "They came through, big league. Big league. And frankly if they had any doubt, they didn't vote, and that was almost as good because a lot of people didn't show up, because they felt good about me."

Among the reason for Clinton's loss was lower-than-anticipated turnout among demographic groups that propelled Obama's victory, including African-Americans. Trump, meanwhile, benefited from a strong performance among working-class white voters.

Michigan was among the industrial Midwestern states where Trump unexpectedly prevailed.

Several protesters were removed from his rally at DeltaPlex Arena, prompting the president-elect to declare at one point, "Get 'em out of here."

Trump introduced Betsy DeVos, his choice for education secretary, who hails from West Michigan, and announced that Andrew Liveris, the chief executive of Dow Chemical, would lead a national manufacturing council. Liveris told the audience that Dow would soon bring a new research-and-development center to Michigan.