President Donald Trump on Friday said he was being sarcastic when he asked medical experts about injecting disinfectants into the body to fight coronavirus.

“I was asking a sarcastic and a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside,” Trump said. “That was done in the form of a sarcastic question to the reporters.”

The president commented to reporters on the establishment media firestorm over disinfectants after signing a bill providing $320 billion in additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program.

When Reuters reporter Jeff Mason asked the president to clarify whether he was encouraging Americans to ingest disinfectants, Trump replied, “No, of course not.”

He added, “Interior wise, it’s said sarcastically, it was put in the form of a question to a group of extraordinarily hostile people, namely the fake news media.”

During the White House press briefing on Thursday, Trump questioned whether it was possible to use disinfectants “by injection inside” to kill coronavirus. He later clarified, “it wouldn’t be through injection.”

Here is what the president asked Acting Undersecretary of Science and Technology for the Department of Homeland Security Bill Bryan:

“Then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?” he asked. “Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.”

The White House said Friday that Trump’s remarks were taken out of context.