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Tim Cook has poked fun at Donald Trump after the president referred to him as “Tim Apple” in an awkward slip of the tongue.

The Apple CEO, rather than acknowledging the error in person, later quietly altered his Twitter name to Tim Apple.

Mr Cook made the revision using his firm’s Apple logo after a number of requests from his social media followers.

“Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, seriously should change his name to Tim Apple! It’s catchy,” one commentator wrote on Twitter.

The President met the tech boss during a meeting at the White House for the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board.

But he slipped up, saying: “You’ve really put a big investment in our country, we appreciate it very much Tim Apple.”

Mr Trump then went on a rant about the “invasion” of immigrants over the southern border, and human trafficking, which he said had been going on for “a million years.”

He has previously struggled with names, having called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "Betanyahu,” and regularly confuses the names of staff members.

President Trump was widely mocked on social media for the gaffe, with journalist James Kosur commenting: “Donald Trump called Tim Cook (Apple's CEO), "Tim Apple" during a White House visit.

“His next set of guests include Bill Microsoft, Jack Twitter, Sergey Google, Elon Tesla, and Mark Facebook.”

Political analyst Bill Palmer added: “Donald Trump just referred to Apple CEO Tim Cook as ‘Tim Apple.’ I'm pretty sure Trump is in need of immediate medical attention.”