President Trump announced Friday that Rep. John Ratcliffe will not be the next director of national intelligence.

The withdrawal of Ratcliffe’s nomination followed reports that he’d exaggerated his work as a federal prosecutor on terrorism cases.

“Our great Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe is being treated very unfairly by the LameStream Media. Rather than going through months of slander and libel, I explained to John how miserable it would be for him and his family to deal with these people,” Trump wrote in a tweet.

“John has therefore decided to stay in Congress where he has done such an outstanding job representing the people of Texas, and our Country.”

Trump’s tweets end a five-day saga, with Trump announcing on Sunday that current DNI Dan Coats, would be stepping down and that he had chosen Ratcliffe, a Texas Republican who went after special counsel Robert Mueller during last week’s House Judiciary Committee hearing, to replace him.

Ratcliffe was viewed as too partisan and not experienced enough to oversee all the nation’s top intelligence agencies. Even senators from the president’s own party acted less than enthused. While many praised Coats’ tenure, the bulk of Senate Republicans either wouldn’t comment on Ratcliffe or said they didn’t know him.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) never weighed in on the nomination. His spokesman didn’t immediately comment Friday after the Texas lawmaker dropped out. McConnell instead had applauded Coats’ tenure on Sunday.

“I was reassured knowing that a man who took such a deliberate, thoughtful and unbiased approach was at the helm of the intelligence committee,” McConnell said of the exiting leader.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee and is often a key swing vote, had said she didn’t “have an opinion yet.”

“I truly don’t know him at all,” she said of Ratcliffe. “I had never heard his name until last week.”

Senate Democrats had vowed to fight the nomination — and cheered when Ratcliffe pulled out.

“Thank goodness,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “Rep. Ratcliffe never should have been considered in the first place. This is part of a pattern from President Trump: nomination on a whim without consulting or vetting.”