First it was the Boy Scouts and now it’s the White House saying that no leader of the organization ever called U.S. President Donald Trump to praise his speech before its jamboree on July 24.
Trump had said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal – a transcript of which was published by Politico – that the head of the Boy Scouts called him to say that his was the “greatest speech that was ever made to them.”
WATCH: Does Trump owe the Boy Scouts an apology?
The Boy Scouts subsequently said they were not aware of any call that had been placed to Trump from its national leadership.
The organization then released a statement saying that an apology for the speech from chief executive Michael Surbaugh “speaks for itself.”
In a Wednesday briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked why the president received a call from the Boy Scouts “when he did not.”
READ MORE: Boy Scouts counter Trump’s claim that they called his speech the ‘greatest ever’
“Did he lie?” a reporter asked.
“No,” Sanders responded, though she later said that members of the Boy Scout leadership “congratulated him, praised him and offered quite… powerful compliments following his speech.”
She was subsequently told that Trump had said he received a phone call to congratulate him for the speech.
Sanders responded, “They were actually — they were direct conversations, not actual phone calls.”
A reporter then asked, “So he lied? He didn’t receive that phone call?”
“I wouldn’t say it was a lie. That’s a pretty bold accusation,” Sanders said.
But the speech to the Boy Scouts wasn’t the only matter that reports say Trump exaggerated this week.
A call from Mexico’s president that never happened
As The New York Times reported, Trump also said at a Monday cabinet meeting that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto had called him to praise his efforts to curb illegal immigration.
No such call took place, Mexico’s government said Wednesday.
Responding to questions about Mexico, Sanders said Trump was referring to a conversation that he had with Nieto at the G20 Summit.
“The conversations took place,” Sanders said.
“They just simply didn’t take place over a phone call; that he had them in person.”