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President Trump on Tuesday defended his referring to the coronavirus as “the Chinese virus,” calling it a “very accurate term.”

Trump stood by his use of the phrase— which critics say is loaded with troubling racist connotations — as a way of going tit-for-tat with China.

“China was putting out information which was false that our military gave this to them. That was false,” Trump told reporters Tuesday in a White House briefing. “Rather than having an argument, I said, ‘I have to call it where it came from, it did come from China.’

“So I think it’s a very accurate term.”

Since originating in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, the coronavirus has infected over 190,000 people worldwide as of Tuesday afternoon, killing more than 7,500.

On Monday, Trump vowed to support US industries affected by “the Chinese Virus.”

“The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “We will be stronger than ever before!”

Public health experts, including Robert Redfield, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have disavowed references to the now-global contagion as a “Chinese” disease, according to The Hill.

But Trump denied Tuesday that the term creates any stigma.

“I didn’t appreciate the fact that China was saying that our military gave it to them,” he said. “Our military did not give it to anybody.

“I think saying that our military gave it to them creates a stigma.”