Three days after looking to the sky and proclaiming himself “the chosen one” in his escalating trade war with China, President Donald Trump is backpedaling on the assertion, downplaying it as a joke.

In a pair of tweets Saturday, Trump complained about media coverage of the statement, claiming that the press “knew I was kidding, being sarcastic, and just having fun,” and chose to misconstrue the remark.

“I was smiling as I looked up and around,” he added, though footage of his Wednesday press conference does not, in fact, show him smiling as he made the comment. “The MANY reporters with me were smiling also. They knew the TRUTH.”

Continuing, the president alleged it was “fake news,” and was apparently irked that the media took seriously what he said in a presidential briefing outside the White House.