Donald Trump now says he was joking when he anointed himself "the chosen one".
The US President made the lofty claim earlier this week while talking to reporters about his trade war with China, which has seen the two huge economies slap tariffs on each others' exports.
"Somebody said this is Trump's trade war. It's not my trade war. This is a trade war that should have taken place a long time ago by a lot of other Presidents," he said on Wednesday (local time).
"Somebody had to do it. I am the chosen one... so I am taking on China. I'm taking on China on trade. And you know what? We're winning," Trump said.
The comment came the same day he tweeted about a supporter calling him the "King of Israel" and "the second coming of God".
After days of mockery, Trump took to Twitter on Sunday (NZ time) to clarify he wasn't being serious.
"When I looked up to the sky and jokingly said 'I am the chosen one,' at a press conference two days ago, referring to taking on Trade with China, little did I realize that the media would claim that I had a 'Messiah complex.' They knew I was kidding, being sarcastic, and just having fun," he wrote.
"I was smiling as I looked up and around. The MANY reporters with me were smiling also. They knew the TRUTH...And yet when I saw the reporting, CNN, MSNBC and other Fake News outlets covered it as serious news & me thinking of myself as the Messiah. No more trust!"
Video of the incident shows he wasn't smiling when he said it, appearing deadly serious as he tried to deflect blame for the tit-for-tat tariffs on China.
But that didn't stop him repeating the lie when asked about it by a reporter before leaving for the G7 summit.
"You know exactly what I meant. It was sarcasm, it was joking, we were all smiling. A question like that is just fake news - you're just a faker."
Trump has regularly called reporting he doesn't like "fake news".
Newshub.
