Donald Trump is blaming the “fake news” for blowing up the fact that he slipped up recently in a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Trump just refuses to admit that he misspoke.

“At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words,” Trump said.

“The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!”

At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words. The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2019

Ever since Cook participated in a “business leaders” gathering at the White House last week, political observers have taken notice of the moment when Trump referred to the Apple CEO as “Tim Apple.”

The flub has given way to jokes and snickering over the last few days, but Cook is going along with it by embracing the new name on his official Twitter account.

Beyond Trump’s angry retort to his media coverage, his Twitter statement comes amid reports that he denied ever saying “Tim Apple” when he met with Republican donors at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend.

Axios reports that Trump also blamed the “fake news” for the debacle during this meeting even though it was all caught on camera.

Twitter had a field day:

Right, and when I spilled coffee all over myself this morning it was an just an easy way to warm up my lap. Meant to do it! https://t.co/a7g1WgqIuJ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 11, 2019

The fact that Trump won’t simply admit that he misspoke, and move on, could mean there’s more going on here. When Trump gets most defensive, he’s usually guilty of something. Or in this case, hiding something health related? https://t.co/XyUn2ptaOD

— John Aravosis ???????? (@aravosis) March 11, 2019

Funny as this is, it's also a stark view of just how debilitating his narcissism can be. The man is not well. https://t.co/VDkPIE5K3p

— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) March 11, 2019

My god is this sad.https://t.co/QQragxqy2f

— Gary Legum (@GaryLegum) March 11, 2019

I really like that he thinks this makes him look less demented https://t.co/MWgK62b7rl

— ꜱᴀᴍ ᴛʜɪᴇʟᴍᴀɴ (@samthielman) March 11, 2019