With seemingly no provocation, Donald Trump went into a closed door meeting with European officials and reportedly said the Germans are "very, very bad" and started a ruckus over German cars sold in the US.

Germany's Der Speigel newspaper says the orange clown was discussing Germany's trade surplus with the US when he blurted out:  "The Germans are evil, very evil."

"Look at the millions of cars they sell in the US, and we’ll stop that," sources told Der Spiegel.  EU Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker took up for Germany explaining that "free trade is good for all".

Another report from the "Suddeutsche Zeitung" said the EU allies were horrified by simplistic way the Americans view global trade - Especially in that Trump has previously threatened to put a 35 percent border tax on German car imports; legally, he could only slap on a 15 percent tariff for 150 days.  Anything more than that would need congressional approval to do.

But starting a tariff war with Germany doesn't make a lick of sense, because automakers Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz already have manufacturing plants in the US, employing 33,000 Americans who built 850,000 units over the past seven years.  Many of those cars were shipped to Europe and Asia.