President Donald Trump chided the “fake news” for calling out his failed promise that Mexico would pay for a wall on its border with the United States, insisting he “never said” they would write a check for the structure.

Trump, speaking to reporters outside the White House, said he believed the wall would “pay for itself every three or four months and maybe even better than that, in terms of overall.”

He continued: “When during the campaign I would say Mexico is going to pay for it, obviously I never said this, and I never meant they’re going to write out a check. I said they’re going to pay for it. They are.”

Trump added that Mexico would pay for the wall through his renegotiated NAFTA trade deal, though how that would work is unclear.

As CNBC White House reporter Christina Wilkie points out, Trump’s claim that he never said Mexico would pay directly for the wall is false.

Aside from proclaiming countless times on the campaign trail and as president that Mexico would pay for the wall, Trump also put it in writing: in a memo released during the 2016 campaign, Trump said Mexico would make a “one-time payment of $5-10 billion” for the wall.

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