Protasis trouble

From a partial transcript of an interview between Donald Trump and Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush of The New York Times:

Trump: Elijah Cummings [a Democratic representative from Maryland] was in my office and he said, “You will go down as one of the great presidents in the history of our country.”

Haberman: Really.

Trump: And then he went out and I watched him on television yesterday and I said, “Was that the same man?”

[Laughter.]

Trump: But I said, and I liked him, but I said that was really nice. He said, in a group of people, “You will go down as one of the great presidents in the history of our country.” And then I watched him on television and I said, “Is that the same man that said that to me?”

Of course, what Trump claimed that Cummings said is not what Cummings said. Cummings gave The Washington Post an explanation:

During my meeting with the president and on several occasions since then, I have said repeatedly that he could be a great president if . . . if . . . he takes steps to truly represent all Americans rather than continuing on the divisive and harmful path he is currently on.

Donald Trump apparently suffers from protasis trouble. His distortion of Cummings’s remarks puts me in mind of a disgruntled student: “You said I’d get a B!” “No, I said that this could be a B paper — if you improve the third and fourth paragraphs, and if you clear up the documentation problems, and if you add,” &c.