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Trump Defends 'Tim Apple' Comment, Says He Was Saving Time

WASHINGTON (CBS SF / AP) -- President Donald Trump says he didn't slip up when he referred to Apple CEO Tim Cook as "Tim Apple" at a White House meeting.

Trump tweeted Monday: "I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words. The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!"

Trump made the comment last week, at a White House business roundtable on workforce changes.

"We're going to be opening up the labor forces because we have to. We have so many companies coming in," Trump said. "People like Tim — you're expanding all over and doing things that I really wanted you to do right from the beginning. I used to say, 'Tim, you gotta start doing it here,' and you really have, you've really put a big investment in our country. We really appreciate it very much, Tim Apple."

After the session, Cook altered his Twitter profile, replacing his last name with the Apple logo.

The remarks didn't go unnoticed on social media, and even prompted a reaction by Trump's daughter Ivanka, who serves as an advisor to the president and was sitting near Cook at the meeting.

At a dinner for Republican National Committee donors Friday at his Florida club, Trump complained that his "Tim Apple" flub was "fake news," said a person who heard them and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Trump's remarks. Trump's complaint was first reported by Axios.

© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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