Watch: Sarah Sanders Defends Trump Falsely Saying The US Is Most-Taxed Country

WASHINGTON, DC — White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended the president's repeated false claim that the United States is the highest-taxed country at a briefing Tuesday, saying that he means only that Americans have the highest corporate tax rate.

"We are the highest taxed, uh, corporate tax, in the developed economy," she said when asked about the falsehood. "That's a fact."

President Trump had made the assertion in the Oval Office earlier in the day, and a reporter pointed out that he was not specifically talking about the corporate tax rate. (Even this more measured claim can be misleading, however, because the deductions and exclusions in the tax code mean American companies do not, in fact, pay the highest rates in the world.)

Huckabee Sanders: 'Not Too Much To Ask' For Players To Stand

"That's what he's talking about," Sanders said. "We are the highest corporate-taxed country in the developed economies across the world." (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Even after she was repeatedly pressed on the fact that Trump's repeated misstatements refer just to taxes in the United States, and not specifically corporate taxes, she would not agree that the president is wrong.

"It seems pretty consistent to me. Sorry, we're just going to have to agree to disagree," she said.

In recent days, Trump has feuded with Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who has said that the White House is "adult day care." Sanders said that while Corker is entitled to his own opinion, he is not entitled to his own facts. She argued that the facts show that Trump has been successful in executing his foreign policy.

Multiple reports also suggest that Trump is still fuming about and NBC article last week that found Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whom Trump is having lunch with Tuesday, called him a "moron." In an interview in Forbes, Trump said that he thought the claim was "fake news." He said that even if Tillerson called him a moron, he would be able to beat the secretary of state on an IQ test.

Sanders said this claim was a joke.

Watch: Huckabee Sanders: Trump Was Joking About Tillerson's IQ

A State Department spokesperson later said that Tillerson has a high IQ.

The White House is also continuing to face questions about its response to Puerto Rico, which is still dealing with the devastation brought by Hurricane Maria. Sanders touted good news from the region, including the fact the seven schools are opening in the U.S. Virgin Islands this week, but she did not give any specifics about the continued struggles the American territories face from the storm.

Watch the briefing:

Write a letter to the editor of the White House Patch.

Like us on Facebook:

Follow us on Twitter.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images