European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker reportedly used brightly coloured flash cards to explain international trade to US president Donald Trump.
The pair met at the White House earlier this week for trade negotiations and Mr Juncker used cards with simple language and easy-to-understand explanations, according to a senior EU official who was at the meeting and spoke to the Wall Street Journal.
“Each card had at most three figures about a specific topic, such as trade in cars or standards for medical devices,” the paper reported.
The official said the EU team of negotiators was aware it was “not an academic seminar”.
The meeting, according to the senior EU official, went well with Mr Trump appearing “charming” and “well-briefed”.
Mr Juncker took the opportunity, according to the official, to tell the US leader both sides should stop with retaliatory tariffs since it only hurts domestic producers.
“If you want to be stupid, I can be stupid, as well,” Mr Juncker said.
After the meeting, Mr Trump announced he would not increase tariffs on European cars. The EU also said it would buy more US soybeans and liquefied natural gas.
The pair held a joint press conference and said they would "work together toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods."
During the course of the three-hour meeting, Mr Trump appeared to have changed his mind after calling the EU his “foe” just weeks ago at the G7 meeting in Montreal, Canada, and the North Atlantic Organisation Treaty (Nato) meeting in Brussels.
The de-escalation of trade tensions comes after Mr Trump increased tariffs on European steel and aluminium, to which the EU threatened to do the same on Kentucky bourbon, Levi’s jeans, and orange juice among other signature American products.
The EU official’s description of ‘dumbing things down’ for Mr Trump joins with his critics’ perception that he is not the most academic of presidents interested in nuances of diplomacy or crucial details of domestic policies.
On at least one occasion Mr Trump said, during a major fight in Congress over the fate of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, “nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated”.
He also did not understand the criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike about his performance during a joint press conference in Helsinki, Finland, with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After the meeting, Mr Juncker said there was hope for lessening the tariffs on European steel and aluminium and noted he and Mr Trump “have a good personal relation”.
