Washington (CNN) The mayor of El Paso, Texas, said President Donald Trump called him "a RINO" -- an acronym for "Republican in name only" -- in a private meeting during the President's visit to the city in the wake of a mass shooting that left 22 dead.

Speaking with "PBS Frontline" in an interview that aired Wednesday, El Paso Mayor Dee Margo said Trump made the jab during a private conversation when Margo pushed back on Trump's "misinformation" about crime in El Paso.

"He said 'you're a RINO.' I said 'no sir, I'm not a RINO.' I said, 'I simply corrected the misinformation you were given by (the Texas) attorney general, and that's all I did," Margo said.

He said that Trump "just kind of grinned" in response.

Margo told PBS he was trying to push back on Trump's claim that El Paso had a lot violent crime before a border barrier was erected -- an issue the two have traded barbs over before. In February, Margo told CNN Trump was "wrong" to connect El Paso's drop in crime to a border barrier that isn't "continuous."

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