Trump is telling people the 'Access Hollywood' tape was faked -- even after he admitted it was real in 2016

President Donald Trump's story has changed on the notorious "Access Hollywood" tape that surfaced prior to the election in 2016, according to The New York Times.

In a story about Trump's unflagging support of accused child molester Roy Moore, the Times revealed that Trump informed "a certain senator" earlier this year that the tape was phony -- a statement he recently repeated to an adviser.

In October of 2016, Trump apologized for the things he said on the leaked audio, pledging to be "a better man" than the genital-grabbing predator exposed in the recorded conversation with "Access Hollywood" host Billy Bush.

"I never said I’m a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone that I’m not. I’ve said some things that I regret and the words released today on this more-than-a-decade-old video are one of them,” then-candidate Trump said.

In its piece examining Trump's motivations for refusing to denounce Roy Moore, the Timessaid, "(S)omething deeper has been consuming Mr. Trump. He sees the calls for Mr. Moore to step aside as a version of the response to the now-famous 'Access Hollywood' tape, in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitalia, and the flood of groping accusations against him that followed soon after. He suggested to a senator earlier this year that it was not authentic, and repeated that claim to an adviser more recently. (In the hours after it was revealed in October 2016, Mr. Trump acknowledged that the voice was his, and he apologized.)"

In spite of solid reporting from The Washington Post and other news organizations confirming that Moore has been a known predator of underage girls, Trump believes that Moore is the victim of a political hit job.