Donald Trump’s top trade negotiator learned a valuable lesson Friday…never contradict King Donald.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Friday agreed to modify the terminology he uses about a trade agreement with China after Trump contradicted him in an Oval Office meeting.

The debate between Trump and Lighthizer over the meaning of a so-called memorandum of understanding, or MOU, played out in front of cameras, and at one point a Chinese official laughed out loud.

Trump, Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were among those in attendance for a televised discussion with a Chinese trade delegation about ways to try to end an economic feud with Beijing.

The discussion revolved around how long memorandums of understanding would last in a trade deal. MOUs have been drafted on issues such as agriculture, currency and intellectual property as a broader agreement is hashed out.

Trump told reporters they would “be very short term. I don’t like MOUs because they don’t mean anything. To me, they don’t mean anything.”

“An MOU is a binding agreement between two people,” Lighthizer responded.

Turning to members of the news media assembled in the Oval Office, he continued, “It’s detailed. It covers everything in great detail. It’s a legal term. It’s a contract.”

“By the way I disagree,” Trump fired back. “We’re doing a memorandum of understanding that will be put into a final contact, I assume. But to me, the final contract is really the thing Bob, and I think you mean that too, is really the thing that means something. A memorandum of understanding is exactly that, it’s a memorandum of what our understanding is.”

“The real question is, Bob … how long will it take to put that into a final binding contract?”

Lighthizer quickly adopted a new term after the pushback from the president.

“From now on, we’re not using the word ‘memorandum of understanding’ anymore,” Lighthizer said. “We’re going to use the term ‘trade agreement’ … We’re never going to use MOU again.”

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He laughed as the exchange carried on.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He laughs, when Pres Trump tells his Trade Rep Robert Lighthizer that he disagrees with the use of Memorandums of Understanding in trade deals. Lighthizer gets the message and says they won't use that term anymore. pic.twitter.com/GLqXUhP9uS

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) February 22, 2019

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