A Maryland Democratic congressman says Donald Trump invented part of a story on Thursday about a planned meeting between the two men that never happened.

During a White House press conference, the president said Rep. Elijah Cummings was scheduled to sit down with him but canceled because of pressure from Democratic leaders who are concerned about political appearances.

'I actually thought I had a meeting with Congressman Cummings. And he was all excited,' Trump told reporter April Ryan – who, like Cummings, is a vocal advocate for African-Americans.

'And then he said, "Oh, I can't move – it might be bad for me politically. I can't have that meeting." I was all set to have the meeting," the president claimed.

Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings blasted Donald Trump on Thursday after the president claimed the Democrat had canceled a White House meeting out of concern for political optics

Trump suggested that Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer persuaded Cummings to call off the meeting – something that Cummings denied without actually saying Trump was wrong about the meeting itself

'We called, called, called, called – they can't make a meeting with him. Every day I walk in, I said, "I would like to meet with him."

Trump had told Ryan that he intended to 'do a lot of work' to combat inner-city blight. She responded by asking if he planned to work alongside the Congressional Black Caucus, a Democrat-dominated organization whose membership includes only one Republican.

'Well I would,' Trump said. 'I'll tell you what, do you want to set up the meeting?'

'Are they friends of yours? No, set up the meeting. Let's go, set up a meeting. I would love to meet with the Black Caucus. I think it's great.'

Ryan became part of a news cycle of her own this week following an angry confrontation with Trump aide Omarosa Manigault, whom she accused of asking press secretary Sean Spicer to stop calling on her for daily briefing questions.

Trump's story about Cummings, a vocal Congressional Black Caucus member, was meant as an example of how difficult it can be for a president to work with monolithic opposition groups.

And the Maryland Democrat, he suggested, may have been waved off the meeting by New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader.

American Urban Radio Networks reporter April Ryan (right), who created headlines this week over a spat with Trump aide Omarosa Manigault, asked the president the question that led to the story about Cummings and the meeting that never happened

'He was probably told by Schumer or somebody like that – some other lightweight – he was probably told: "Don't meet with Trump, it's bad politics",' the president said. 'And that's part of the problem with this country.'

Cummings didn't deny that he at one point had a White House meeting on his calendar, or that he had pulled out. But he disputed that Schumer had ordered him to cancel.

'I have no idea why President Trump would make up a story about me like he did today,' Cummings said in a statement. 'Of course, Senator Schumer never told me to skip a meeting with the President.'

'I was actually looking forward to meeting with the President about the skyrocketing price of prescription drugs,' he continued, shifting the focus to a pet issue.

'I also sincerely have no idea why the President made this claim in response to an unrelated question about the Congressional Black Caucus,' Cummings added. 'I am sure members of the CBC can answer these questions for themselves.'

The Congressional Black Caucus is a 46-year-old organization of African-American lawmakers, only one of whom is a Republican

The Black Caucus's official Twitter account trolled the president minutes later.

'Hi, @realDonaldTrump. We're the CBC,' its tweet read. 'We sent you a letter on January 19, but you never wrote us back. Sad!'

Trump told Ryan, a reporter with American Urban Radio Networks, that 'as you know, I was very strong on the inner cities during the campaign. I think it's probably what got me a much higher percentage of the African-American vote than a lot of people thought I was going to get.'

'We are going to be working very hard on the inner cities having to do with education, having to do with crime,' he pledged. 'We're going to try and fix as quickly as possible,'

But the president lamented crime rates in the decaying shells of once-proud urban communities, saying, 'It's so sad when you look at the crime.'

'You have people ... they lock themselves into apartments, petrified to even leave in the middle of the day. They're living in hell. We can't let that happen.'