(Newser) – President Trump defended his throwing of paper towels to Puerto Rican hurricane victims in a weekend interview on a Christian network—and claimed to have invented the term "fake." The towel-throwing, which San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz described as "terrible and abominable," was simply a bit of fun with the crowd at a distribution center, Trump told Mike Huckabee on Trinity Broadcasting. "They had these beautiful, soft towels. Very good towels," Trump said, per NBC News. The crowd was "loving everything. I was having fun, they were having fun," he said. "They said, 'Throw 'em to me! Throw 'em to me, Mr. President!" Trump accused Cruz of "doing a very poor job" with her hurricane response.

Trump went on to boast about the term "fake." "I think one of the greatest of all terms I’ve come up with is 'fake,'" he said. "I guess other people have used it, perhaps, over the years, but I've never noticed it." It wasn't entirely clear whether he was taking credit for "fake" or "fake news," but he would be wrong in either case, according to CNN, which Trump often accuses of creating "fake news." The word "fake" has been around for 200 years, while the term "fake news" started appearing in newspapers in the late 19th century. On Sunday, Trump tweeted that nobody could have done what he did in Puerto Rico "with so little appreciation." He also shared a video of hurricane relief efforts "that the fake news media won't show you." (Read more Puerto Rico stories.)

