The White House said Monday that President Trump didn’t mean it when he tweeted that he should have left three UCLA basketball players in a Chinese jail for shoplifting.

“I think if that’s the case he wouldn’t have taken the action that he did and [he] certainly acted in order to help get those individuals released and brought back to the country,” administration spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a Monday press briefing.

Asked why he said it if he didn’t mean it, she replied: “Look, the president was — it was a rhetorical response to a criticism by the father. Again, I think the president was happy to see the release of these individuals and have them back in the United States.”

The hoopsters — Cody Riley, Jalen Hill and LiAngelo Ball, younger brother of Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball — were busted for swiping sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store in Hangzhou, China, where they were playing in a tournament.

They apoplogized and thanked Trump for intervening last week, but LiAngelo’s loudmouth dad, Lavar Ball, enraged Trump when he questioned the importance of the president’s intervention.

“Who?” Ball told ESPN when asked about Trump’s role.

“What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”

The president fired back on Twitter.

“Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unnaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!” he tweeted on Sunday.

“Shoplifting is a very big deal in China, as it should be (5-10 years in jail), but not to father LaVar. Should have gotten his son out during my next trip to China instead. China told them why they were released. Very ungrateful!” he added hours later.

Sanders piled on Monday.

“Frankly, it didn’t seem like the father wanted the president to intervene, which I think would have been a sad thing if he hadn’t, most likely,” she said.