Charles Kushner Ruffles Berets as French Ambassador

A year into his gig as the U.S. ambassador to France, real estate developer Charles Kushner has yet to ingratiate himself with the local officials.

Kushner continues to attack French politicians for failing to do enough to combat antisemitism, including in a recent interview with the New York Times. He’s gone as far as to request the Trump administration grant refugee status to French Jews.

“They live in fear and they feel abandoned by this government,” Kushner said of French Jewry. Experts and officials don’t necessarily disagree that there’s a rising tide of antisemitism in France, but point to efforts by politicians to mitigate the movement and the perceived hypocrisy of an American complaining of antisemitism as hatred regularly rears its head stateside.

Kushner made similar comments in an open letter last August to French president Emmanuel Macron, inciting hard feelings amongst the country’s officials and advisors to Macron who no longer have one-on-one meetings with the ambassador.

He’s since been summoned twice, ignoring both requests and earning the threat of being banned from meetings with French officials by foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot.

It’s all part of a broader movement amongst Trump diplomats to be more combative than they would’ve been under previous administrations, where such spats with national leaders would’ve been deemed unacceptable.

“I don’t know any real estate guy who has become an ambassador,” said French economics minister Roland Lescure. “I’m not sure he’s fully learned to behave like one.”

Kushner, for his part, doesn’t deny behaving differently than previous ambassadors.

“We’re very results-oriented, so if that shakes things up sometimes, maybe we shake them up,” Kushner said.

The State Department is also fine with Kushner’s conduct, saying in a statement, “From his leadership in commercial diplomacy to his strong advocacy against antisemitism, Ambassador Kushner is committed to advancing the ‘America First’ foreign policy vision.”

The Senate confirmed Kushner as ambassador to France in a largely partisan vote last May. During Trump’s first term, the president pardoned Kushner after he served a prison sentence following a conviction on federal charges of tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations.

— Holden Walter-Warner