An ambassador’s broadside aimed at French President Emmanuel Macron is another example of how Trump 2.0 is prioritizing the battle against a rising tide of Jew-hatred.
To say this is the sort of thing that just isn’t done is the understatement of the century. It’s not clear if there is any precedent in the nearly 250 years of Franco-American diplomatic relations for the decision of Charles Kushner, the U.S. ambassador to France, to directly attack the French government’s indifference to antisemitism in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
The traditional job of ambassadors is to promote good relations between the nations they represent and the government to which they are accredited. To speak out in this manner from that perch is pretty much the opposite of traditional ideas of diplomacy. In fact, that tradition dates back to the ancient world, when the concepts of nation-states and ambassadors, as well as the notion of diplomatic immunity for those who serve as go-betweens in this manner, were first known.
But the issue here isn’t—as some of Kushner’s critics and those of the administration he represents claim—one of an unqualified and even unsuitable ambassador behaving badly. Nor is it a matter of, as Trump’s detractors habitually assert, that on his watch the United States has been alienating its friends while cozying up to enemies. That is often how they misrepresent the president’s efforts to use diplomacy while attempting to solve problems like the Russia-Ukraine war and the North Korean nuclear threat.