WASHINGTON -- Real estate tycoon Donald Trump, toying with a presidential run, said Tuesday that his administration would not allow the National Endowment for the Arts to finance "disgusting and obscene" art.

The New York developer condemned a Brooklyn Museum of Art exhibit featuring a dung-encrusted portrait of the Virgin Mary and a Detroit Institute of Arts display of a toy Jesus wearing a condom.

"The exhibit is obviously disgusting and obscene," Trump, a potential Reform Party candidate, said in a telephone interview. "As president, I would cut off federal funding for art that denigrates Catholics or denigrates religion."

The NEA did not fund either exhibit, but Trump used the controversy to make the point that he does not think taxpayers should finance such projects. Asked how the NEA should define obscene art, Trump said, "There's always a fine line" between controversial and obscene art. "The two things we're talking about are so far beyond the line that it would be an easy choice."

Trump said he explored the notion of financing New York City's legal fight against the Brooklyn museum, but his lawyers said the law did not allow him to do so.