As you may recall, because it happened less than a week ago and has dominated the news since, Donald Trump spent Sunday tweeting that four freshman congresswomen should “go back” to the hellholes they “originally came from,” and proceeded to spend the ensuing five days bleating about how if Representatives Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib don’t like the manner in which the United States abuses migrant children, they should get the hell out. “IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY HERE, YOU CAN LEAVE!” he shouted in all caps on Monday. They “hate our country!” he insisted every day thereafter, singling out Omar in particular for supposedly despising America and loving Al-Qaeda.

So by the time Wednesday rolled around, it was practically a certainty that the crowd at his North Carolina rally would start chanting “SEND HER BACK” as the president continued his racist attacks on the lawmaker from Minnesota, almost as though the Grand Wizard had planned for exactly that. Yet despite the fact that Trump had all but come up with the line himself, and paused for several moments during the chant to make sure the whole arena could hear it clearly, on Thursday he tried to claim that he was not happy about the line, like the gaslighting plague on society he is.

Asked by a reporter in the Oval Office why he didn’t tell the crowd to stop, Trump responded, “Well, number one, I think I did”—fact check: he didn’t—and “I started speaking very quickly”—fact check: wrong again; he was silent for several moments as if to amplify the chant, but we digress. He then argued, as only a sociopath could, that he didn’t appreciate what had transpired at all, but, to give credit where credit is due, thought “it was quite a chant.”

Impressiveness aside, he added, “I disagree with it, by the way. I felt a little bit badly about it, but I will say this, I started speaking very quickly. But it started up rather fast as you probably know.”

In light of the revelation that he didn’t like the chant at all and definitely in no way took pride in it, would the president tell his supporters never to say it again, the same reporter wanted to know? Um, let’s not get crazy. “I'll say this, I was not happy about it,” Trump replied, conveniently dodging the question. “I disagree with it. But, again, I didn’t say it, they did.” As for the matter of the crowd simply echoing the president’s message from earlier in the week, the human embodiment of pissing on one’s leg and telling them it’s raining countered: “I don’t think think if you”ll examine it that you’ll find that.”