US President Donald Trump is lashing out after being ridiculed for referring to Apple CEO Tim Cook as "Tim Apple" at a White House meeting last week.

Axios reported on Sunday that Trump told an audience at Mar-a-Lago last week that he had said "Tim Cook Apple" but pronounced "Cook" quietly.

But on Monday, Trump tweeted that he did say "Tim Apple" — to save time.

Cook and Ivanka Trump, who was also at the meeting, have seen the funny side of the incident.

Donald Trump is trying to style it out over one of his more bizarre moments.

The US president was widely ridiculed last week for referring to Apple CEO Tim Cook as "Tim Apple" during a meeting at the White House.

Cook, who was right next to Trump, made light of the incident, later replacing his last name with the Apple logo on his Twitter profile. Ivanka Trump, who sat on the other side of her father, also laughed it off.

Read more: Tim Cook just changed his name to Tim Apple on Twitter

Trump initially claimed he did say "Tim Cook," according to the Axios reporter Jonathan Swan.

Swan reported on Sunday that as the president was entertaining donors at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Friday night, he told the audience he had actually said "Tim Cook Apple" — just quickly, pronouncing "Cook" quietly. He later turned to a favorite line of attack, calling out the "fake news" for focusing on the remark.

The Axios report said donors in the room were mystified. "I just thought, why would you lie about that," one told Swan.

On Monday, however, Trump told a different story, tweeting that he did say "Tim Apple" — to save time.

"At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words," he said. "The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!"

Here's a video of the moment at the White House meeting: