Story highlights The leaders of Mexico and the Boy Scouts have something in common

Trump claimed two phone conversations contradicted by the alleged other parties

White House now says the discussions happened in person

Washington (CNN) In President Donald Trump's telling, officials from Mexico City to Boy Scouts headquarters are lighting up his phone line with praise.

In the leaders' telling, though, the calls never happened -- and the White House has belatedly agreed.

It was an unusual pattern of pushback against the President of the United States, a frequent and expansive telephoner who sometimes hands out his personal cell number to the people he meets. And it raised questions about which presidential assertions can be believed and which cannot.

On Wednesday, the White House responded to questions about the calls with the same answer: the conversations actually took place in person.

"I wouldn't say it was a lie. That's a pretty bold accusation," press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters at the White House. "The conversations took place, they just simply didn't take place over a phone call."

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