After a relatively successful first half of his big trip abroad, in that it wasn’t a total disaster, Donald Trump landed in Brussels on Thursday, where he apparently felt comfortable enough to act like his old self again. He treated French President Emmanuel Macron to the world’s most awkward handshake. He appeared to shamelessly shove Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic out of the way so he could be at the front of a group photo. He stood in front of the new NATO headquarters and berated our allies for supposedly not paying their fair share on defense. He declined to affirm the U.S.’s commitment to Article 5, which says that NATO allies will aid an ally under attack if it is invoked. Then, for his big finish, he said, “The Germans are bad, very bad. See the millions of cars they sell in the U.S., terrible. We will stop this.” As you might expect, those comments didn’t go over so well with our E.U. counterparts! But according to Gary Cohn, whose role as National Economic Council director involves cleaning up his boss‘s messes, Trump totally didn’t mean what he said.

“He said they’re very bad on trade but he doesn’t have a problem with Germany,” Axios reports Cohn told the press pool. “He said his dad is from Germany. He said, ‘I don’t have a problem with Germany, I have a problem with German trade.’”

Cohn, who must know his defense of the president was basically, “Some of my best friends are black,” is probably particularly worried about Trump’s recent verbal gaffes in light of the fact that the G7 summit is taking place on Friday and Saturday, where the world’s least eloquent commander-in-chief will probably run into yet more problems on account of not having control of the words that tumble out of his mouth. He doesn’t need to start from a deficit.