Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte lashed out at Oxford University on Monday after the school published a study saying the bombastic leader paid for an army of so-called social media "trolls."

Duterte called the renowned British institution a “school for stupid people” in reaction to findings presented in the university’s study “Troops, Trolls and Troublemakers: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation,” Rappler reported.

“I spent 10 million [pesos]? Me? Maybe in the election…They were all during the campaign,” Duterte said at a Monday press conference, the Manila Times reported.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte delivers his speech during the second state of the nation address at the House of Representatives in suburban Quezon city, north of Manila, Philippines, Monday, July 24, 2017. Duterte said he will not stop his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs and warns that addicts and dealers have two choices: jail or hell. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila) (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The Oxford study investigated organized social media manipulation and looked at the strategies of different political parties and candidates in 28 countries -- a number of which, Oxford concluded, used bots to spread party messaging and inflate social media engagement numbers.

MILITANT SIEGE, DRUG KILLINGS MARK DUTERTE'S FIRST YEAR IN OFFICE

Duterte, a former mayor, won with a populist message that targeted drug trafficking. However, his support for the extra-judicial killing of suspected drug dealers has drawn criticism from human rights observers.