Sondland was ambassador to the EU until he was fired by the Trump administration in February 2020.
(L) Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images and (R) Mario Tama/Getty Images
Gordon Sondland said former President Donald Trump’s diplomacy was more measured than it seemed.
Sondland recounted a meeting where Trump entertained top German auto executives at the White House.
He compared Trump’s schmoozing to “watching Leonard Bernstein conduct the New York Philharmonic.”
Gordon Sondland, a one-time ambassador to the EU, said there was a strategy to former President Donald Trump’s foreign diplomacy, despite how chaotic it looked to outsiders.
“Despite appearances, there is method to this madness,” Sondland wrote in his upcoming book about his time working with Trump, titled “The Envoy.” Insider obtained an advance copy of the book, which comes out on October 25.
Sondland recounted a December 2018 White House meeting between Trump and top executives for some of Germany’s biggest automakers. Trump was pushing for car brands like BMW and Volkswagen to make their vehicles in the US. Earlier that year, he had threatened to impose tariffs on European cars.
According to Sondland, Trump was “in effusive host mode” when he and the German executives toured the White House. Trump was “telling stories, asking questions, and completely putting these guys at ease,” per Sondland.
“It’s like watching Leonard Bernstein conduct the New York Philharmonic,” he wrote.
Sondland said the group moved to the Roosevelt Room, where Trump asked the executives to help him broker trade deals between the US and EU. Trump also suggested that the carmakers could move their production base to the US, promising them better profits and fast-tracked routes to setting up factories in America.
“The music stops. The Germans’ heads are spinning. Here they thought they were coming to Washington for mundane technical meetings, and all of a sudden, they are being entertained by the president of the United States,” Sondland wrote.
“To the untrained eye, the whole thing looked like cacophony. In my view, it was a brilliant choreography on the part of Trump,” he continued.
Sondland said Trump’s behavior knocked the automotive executives “off-kilter” and made them think three things: first, that “Trump is crazy,” and second, that “Trump is crazy enough to put us out of business if we don’t play ball.” The former ambassador said Trump also achieved a third goal: getting the message across that these executives could “get a sweet deal in the US.”
Sondland said the executives later warmed to Trump’s idea of moving production to the US, citing a statement from Volkswagen after the meeting.
“From our perspective, the US position is understandable,” Volkswagen said in December 2018, per The Associated Press. “They want more investment in the US.”
The then-CEOs of Volkswagen and Daimler told German media outlet Local.de after the meeting that they felt the threat of sanctions on their cars was less likely than before the meeting. However, the automakers rejected the idea that they could help with Trump’s US-EU trade deals, reported Local.de.
In January 2019, Volkswagen announced it would be spending $800 million to add an electric vehicle facility to its factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Trump took to Twitter to call this a “big win.”
Trump ultimately did not go through with his threat to impose tariffs on European cars.
Sondland was fired by the Trump administration in February 2020. His ousting came months after he testified at Trump’s first impeachment trial.
During his testimony, Sondland said there was a quid pro quo understanding that Trump refused to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy unless the latter promised to investigate Hunter Biden — then-former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. Sondland also testified that the Trump administration leveraged $400 million in US military aid in exchange for the Biden investigation.
Trump was impeached in December 2019. He was acquitted by the senate in February 2020.
A representative at Trump’s post-presidential press office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.