Five days after President Donald Trump appeared to slip up and call Apple CEO Tim Cook “Tim Apple” at a White House meeting of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, the president claimed on Monday that it wasn't a mistake at all.
He claimed on Twitter that he said "Tim/Apple" instead of Tim and Apple "as an easy way to save time & words."
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
"The Fake News was disparagingly all over this," he said, "it became yet another bad Trump story!"
The White House official transcript relayed the exchange as "We appreciate it very much, Tim — Apple," implying the president paused.
In the video of the event, he doesn't appear to pause.
The day after the meeting, Cook had a bit of fun at the president’s expense.
The tech executive changed his Twitter name to “Tim Apple” last Thursday, with the Apple an emoji of his company’s logo.
As far as interactions between the two go, this one was pretty tame.
Cook has previously criticized Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, condemned the president’s so-called travel ban, and pressured Trump to preserve DACA.
As a candidate, Trump called for a boycott of Apple during a dispute over the company’s role in unlocking the iPhone of the suspected San Bernardino shooter.
ABC News' Laura Spitalniak and Rachel Scott contributed to this report.