Washington - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson openly referred to President Donald Trump as a “moron” after a July 20 meeting at the Pentagon, according to NBC News, citing multiple senior administration officials.

According to three officials, Tillerson made the comment in front of members of Trump’s national security team and Cabinet members. The report also said Tillerson was on the verge of resigning this summer and had to be talked out of it by Vice President Mike Pence.

Officials said the tensions reached a high point around the time Trump gave a politicized speech to the Boy Scouts of America in late July. Tillerson was once leader of the organization.

However in abruptly scheduled remarks, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday refuted a report that said he had been on the verge of resigning from his Cabinet post over the summer.

“I have never considered leaving this post,” Tillerson said about what he called an “erroneously” reported story.

The White House was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC and declined to comment on the record to NBC News for the story.

Relations between Trump and the former Exxon CEO appear to still be strained. Just last weekend, Trump publicly denied Tillerson’s announcement that the U.S. was attempting diplomatic talks with North Korea.

In its report, NBC said Tillerson’s top State Department spokesman, R.C. Hammond, denied that the secretary had considered quitting this summer and denied that Tillerson called Trump a “moron.”

Tillerson stated that Vice President Mike Pence has never had to persuade him to remain America’s top diplomat, which NBC had also reported.

And NBC also reported that Tillerson had called President Trump a “moron.”  Asked to respond to that part of the story, the secretary of State replied, “I’m not going to deal with petty stuff like that,” though he did not deny that he said it.

Tillerson spent the first few minutes touting what he described as progress by the Trump administration on certain foreign policy issues like imposing economic sanctions on North Korea and targeting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) whose caliphate, he said, is “on the brink of being completely extinguished.”

“What we have accomplished we have done as a team,” he said, praising the work of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

He then went on to say that Mr. Trump “loves his country,” puts America first and called him “smart.” Tillerson said that the president “demands results” and holds people accountable.

“My commitment to the success of our president and this country is as strong as it was the day that I accepted his offer to serve as secretary of state,” he asserted.

Just minutes before Tillerson’s remarks, Mr. Trump tweeted that NBC News is “fake news.”