Donald Trump walked back his claim Friday that Iranians sent a video recording of money being carried off in an airplane in Iran in exchange for U.S. hostages after a backlash this week over allegations that the White House had made a $400 million ransom payment for four Americans.

Trump tweeted Friday morning that the plane footage he saw was that of the hostage plane in Geneva, Switzerland, and not the plane carrying the ransom payment.


Even after his campaign told reporters that no such tape existed, Trump continued to reference the footage throughout his campaign appearances Thursday.

Onstage at a rally in Maine just hours earlier, Trump defied his campaign spokeswoman's attempts to clarify the nature of his rants about the video by again insisting that Iranians had slipped a tape to his team.

"A tape was made with the airplane coming in — nice plane. And the money coming off, I guess. Right? That was given to us, has to be, by the Iranians. And you know why the tape was given to us? Because they want to embarrass our country and they want to embarrass our president," Trump said.

Hope Hicks, his spokeswoman, had already said the tape was simply "b-roll footage" recorded in Geneva.

The disconnect between Trump and his team was just the latest slip-up for a campaign rumored to be dissolving into chaos.

Hillary Clinton has padded her lead over Trump as the Republican nominee's pivot to the general election was derailed by his controversial statements about a Muslim Gold Star family who spoke at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.