As ambassadorships dwindle, U.S. diplomats may fare worse than those assigned to Europe. At least in the western part of Kiev, housing is spacious and life is peaceful. “You’re in friendly territory,” said former U.S. Ambassador to Poland Daniel Fried. If a dispute does arise, most can be handled behind closed doors.
But recent public spat between three US ambassadors and their respective hosts have given Europe a taste of the Trump administration’s more resolute and more subdued approach to diplomacy. For Washington, the turmoil is the kind of tough love the continent needs. For Europe, these are unnecessary acts of hostility that violate “fundamental diplomatic norms.”
Bill White, the US ambassador to Belgium, this week criticized the country’s approach to Jewish circumcision ceremonies and accused the country of anti-Semitism.
White condemned Belgium’s response to the Antwerp incident. In this case, three Jewish men who perform ritual circumcisions, known as mohels, are under judicial investigation for allegedly performing the circumcisions without a doctor present. In a lengthy post about X, White called on Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke to intervene in the case.
“You, the people of Belgium, must now drop the ridiculous anti-Semitic ‘charges’ against three Jewish religious figures (Mohels) in Antwerp! They are doing what they have been trained to do for thousands of years,” White wrote.
He called Vandenbroucke “extremely rude” and claimed the minister refused to shake his hand or take a photo with him. “It was clear that you hated America, the country that twice fought for the freedom of Belgium and for which tens of thousands of our countrymen’s sons died,” White said.
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévost responded by calling White’s proposal “false, offensive and unacceptable.” He clarified that circumcision ceremonies are allowed in Belgium “when performed by a qualified physician in accordance with strict health and safety standards,” and said he was called to Tuesday’s meeting because of White’s abuse.
“An ambassador appointed to Belgium has a responsibility to respect the independence of our institutions, our elected representatives and our judicial system,” Prévost said. “Personal attacks on Belgian ministers and interference in judicial matters violate basic diplomatic norms.”
CNN has reached out to the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and the State Department for comment.
The altercation was reminiscent of earlier accusations of anti-Semitism made by U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner against President Emmanuel Macron. Kushner, the father of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, accused Macron of failing to address rising anti-Semitism in a letter to the Wall Street Journal. Macron called Kushner’s unkind letter a “mistake” and “unacceptable statements from someone who should be a diplomat.”
This week’s spat in Belgium comes shortly after U.S. Ambassador to Poland Tom Rose announced on February 5 that the United States would sever ties with Poland’s Sejm Speaker, Włodzimierz Czarjusti. Three days earlier, Mr. Czarzasti had said at a news conference that Mr. Trump was “not worthy” of the Nobel Peace Prize he had coveted for years.
Rose said Czarzasty’s “outrageous and unprovoked insults” toward Trump “posed a serious impediment” to “good relations” between the U.S. and Polish governments. “We will not allow anyone to undermine the relationship between the United States and Poland or disrespect (Trump),” he said.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who leads the center-left majority in Sejm, told Rose: “Allies should respect each other and not lecture each other. At least this is how we understand partnership here in Poland.” “I will always defend the president without hesitation, without exception, without apology,” Rose responded.
Fried, who served as ambassador to Poland from 1997 to 2000, said the incident marked a departure from traditional diplomatic practices. He told CNN that a diplomat’s job is to “promote the president’s policies.”
“But that doesn’t necessarily mean protecting the president from all attacks. Think about how to work within the politics of the country you’re in to advance the president’s policies. Sometimes that means ignoring attacks and focusing on policy,” he said.
Fried praised Rose’s work so far in Warsaw, but warned: “You rarely win matches in public on other people’s grounds. … If you go down the path of fighting on other people’s grounds, you will lose.”
But the Trump administration appears to enjoy picking fights on European turf, with Vice President J.D. Vance belittling European allies in Munich and Trump’s frequent online abuse. Fried, who also served as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs under President George W. Bush, said European ambassadors may be following this more belligerent lead.
“They’re meeting what they think is expected of them, and unfortunately, that’s a reasonable expectation,” he said. “They’re dealing with a very thin White House. They may be thinking that if they don’t respond strongly, they might be attacked by someone else in the Trump world.”
But he said you can benefit by choosing which “attacks” to ignore. He recalled how José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero came to power in Spain in 2004 after loudly opposing the ongoing US invasion of Iraq and accusing Prime Minister José María Aznar of being a puppet of President Bush.
After the election, Fried recalled that President Bush called Zapatero to congratulate him on his victory. “He basically said, ‘Hey, this was a campaign. I get that. But even if we disagree, we have to work together on a lot of things, and I’m happy to do that.'” Zapatero was stunned. He could be heard saying, “What?” Did he reach out to me after I said everything?
Mr. Bush “knew what he was doing,” Mr. Freed said. “A lot of problems were avoided because Bush shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t take this personally. He had his eyes on the bigger prize.”
