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The senior official cast doubt on whether the landmark meeting could end up happening as scheduled on June 12 even if the United States and North Korea reversed course and decided to meet because time was running short.

“There’s been an enormous amount of preparation that’s gone on over the past few months at the White House, at State and with other agencies and so forth, but there’s a certain amount of actual dialogue that needs to take place at the working level with your counterparts to ensure that the agenda is clear in the minds of those two leaders when they sit down to actually meet and talk and negotiate and hopefully make a deal,” the official said. “June 12 is in 10 minutes.”

On Friday, one day after canceling the summit, Trump struck a much more positive tone and told reporters it was still possible that his meeting with Kim could happen June 12.

Photo by Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File

In his Saturday tweet, Trump seemed to take issue with how the official’s remarks were characterized. The Times wrote that holding the summit on June 12 would be “impossible” given the short time frame, citing the official while not directly quoting. The official did not use the word impossible.

“As with so many issues involving this president, the views of his aides often have little effect on what he actually says,” the Times’ story reads. “On Thursday, for example, a senior White House official told reporters that even if the meeting were reinstated, holding it on June 12 would be impossible, given the lack of time and the amount of planning needed.”

The Times did not respond to a request for comment about whether it stood by its characterization of the official’s comments.

“Best way to alleviate the President’s concern about anonymous sources would be for WH to name the official,” David Sanger, one of the two Times reporters who wrote the story referenced by Trump, said on Twitter on Saturday.