The President is a fucking moron, part infinity

As someone who often negotiates MOUs and even more often sues to enforce them, I was amused by this:

The differences between the two men mounted on Friday, as they shared a remarkable exchange in front of the press and the Chinese delegation over whether to call the current trade agreement a memorandum of understanding, or M.O.U., as Mr. Lighthizer had been doing.

“I don’t like M.O.U.s because they don’t mean anything,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Lighthizer. “I think you’re better off just going into a document. I was never a fan of an M.O.U.”

Mr. Lighthizer interjected to explain that, in trade negotiations, an M.O.U. is a typical term for a detailed contract between two parties. “It’s just called a memorandum of understanding,” he said. “That’s a legal term.”

Mr. Trump, seemingly unhappy with being contradicted, cut back in. “By the way, I disagree,” the president said. “I think that a memorandum of understanding is not a contract to the extent that we want.”

“To me, the final contract is really the thing, Bob — and I think you mean that, too — is really the thing that means something,” the president added.

Mr. Lighthizer quickly reversed course. “From now on, we’re not using the word memorandum of understanding anymore,” he told Mr. Trump and his Chinese counterparts. “We’ll have the same document. It’s going to be called a trade agreement. We’re never going to use M.O.U. again.”

“I like that much better,” Mr. Trump said.

ADDING: More on the President's MOU dumbassery. Bottom line: calling it a "trade agreement" has actual legal consequences. An MOU is an executive agreement that can just be signed by the President. A "trade agreement" is a treaty, which must be ratified by Congress. In other words, because he is too stupid to understand what MOU means, Trump is giving Congress the chance to reject whatever boneheaded deal he makes with the Chinese government.