Donald Trump undercut his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, on Friday saying the former New York mayor "needs to get his facts straight".
It came after Mr Giuliani indicated that the president had changed his position on whether he knew about a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, the porn star who claims she had an affair with him a decade ago.
The hush money was paid to Ms Daniels by Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, days before the 2016 election.
Mr Trump said publicly on April 5, on board Air Force One, that he did not know bout the payment.
On Wednesday night Mr Giuliani made a bombshell announcement on Fox News, confirming for the first time that Mr Trump personally reimbursed Mr Cohen.
His comments stunned White House officials including Sarah Sanders, the press secretary, who said it was the first she had heard of it.
Reuters
Mr Giuliani subsequently insisted Mr Trump had not known the specifics of Mr Cohen’s financial arrangement with Ms Daniels until "maybe 10 days ago".
The former mayor joined Mr Trump’s legal team on April 19. Mr Trump said: "We’re not changing any stories. Rudy’s a great guy but he just started a day ago."
The president said Mr Giuliani, 73, was still "learning the subject matter".
He added that "virtually everything" that had been reported about the Stormy Daniels payment was wrong.
Rudy Giuliani: #Trump repaid Cohen for Stormy Daniels payment https://t.co/C8jTlglAFv pic.twitter.com/1lsjXJSm52
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 3, 2018
Mr Trump admonished the media for concentrating on such "crap" and said the White House would issue an accounting of payments from him to Mr Cohen.
Mr Giuliani’s comments appeared to have been aimed at quashing suggestions that the payment could have violated campaign finance laws.
However, some legal experts said his remarks may only have caused further such problems for the president.
Later, Mr Giuliani issued a statement to "clarify" his comments. Mr Giuliani said he was "not describing my understanding of the president’s knowledge but, instead, my understanding of these matters".