The Babson College employee who was fired for posting a controversial Facebook status about Iran insisted in a new interview that it was all satire — and that the school only booted him to put an end to bad publicity.

Asheen Phansey, the director of sustainability at Babson College in Wellesley, said the since-deleted post — a response to a tweet by President Trump that the US had picked out 52 Iranian cultural sites for destruction — was on his personal profile earlier this month.

“In retaliation, Ayatollah Khomenei [sic] should tweet a list of 52 sites of beloved American cultural heritage that he would bomb,” said the post, first obtained in a screenshot by the local blog Turtleboysports.com. “Um… Mall of America? Kardashian residence?”

In a Tuesday interview on the WGBH program “Greater Boston,” Phansey said the post was taken out of context.

“It was just satirical,” he told host Jim Braude. “It was saying, in the context of what would America threatened, where does this lead?”

Once the post started circulating, Phansey received a surge of racist comments and threats — some saying he should be deported, even though he was born in the US.

“I was wondering if they wanted to deport me back to South Carolina,” he quipped.

In a statement issued soon after Phansey’s firing, the university said the staffer no longer works there.

“Babson College conducted a prompt and thorough investigation related to a post shared on a staff member’s personal Facebook page that does not represent the values and culture of the College,” the statement read. “Based on the results of the investigation, the staff member is no longer a Babson College employee. As we have previously stated, Babson College condemns any type of threatening words and/or actions condoning violence and/or hate.”

Phansey said he was a Babson student for three years, an adjunct professor for 10 years and spent one year on staff.

“I think they fired me because they wanted to stem the tide of the hateful comments that were being made,” he said on the program. “And rather than address, ‘This is the truth behind the post and the satire and whatnot, this is the truth behind this person that we know,’ I think they just said, ‘Hey, we’re getting some bad publicity and this is a way to end it.’”

“It’s absolutely chilling to think we have to self-censor because someone might willfully misconstrue something,” he added.