As ambassadorial jobs go, US diplomats can do worse than being posted to Europe. The residences are huge, and the life is peaceful – at least west of Kyiv. “You’re in friendly territory,” said Daniel Fried, a former US ambassador to Poland. When disputes arise, most can be kept behind closed doors.
But recent public spats among three US ambassadors and their respective hosts have given Europe a taste of the Trump administration’s firmer, less hushed approach to diplomacy. To Washington, the dustups are the sort of tough love the continent needs. To Europe, they are needless antagonism which violates “basic diplomatic norms.”
This week, Bill White, the US ambassador to Belgium, criticized the country for its approach to Jewish ritual circumcision and accused the country of antisemitism.
White slammed Belgium’s handling of a case in Antwerp, where three Jewish men who perform ritual circumcision – known as “mohels” – are under judicial investigation after they allegedly carried out procedures without doctors present. In a long post on X, White demanded that Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgium’s health minister, intervene in the case.
“TO BELGIUM, SPECIFICALLY YOU MUST DROP THE RIDICULOUS AND ANTI SEMITIC ‘PROSECUTION’ NOW OF THE 3 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 “very rude” and claimed the minister had refused to shake his hand or be photographed with him. “It was clear that you dislike America, the country that fought and where tens of thousands of our nation’s sons died for Belgium’s freedom twice,” White said.
Maxime Prévot, Belgium’s foreign minister, hit back, calling White’s suggestion was “false, offensive, and unacceptable.” He clarified that Belgium permits ritual circumcision “when performed by a qualified physician under strict health and safety standards,” and said that White had been summoned for a meeting on Tuesday over his outburst.
“An ambassador accredited to Belgium has a responsibility to respect our institutions, our elected representatives, and the independence of our judicial system,” Prévot said. “Personal attacks against a Belgian minister and interference in judicial matters violate basic diplomatic norms.”
CNN has asked the US Embassy in Brussels and State Department for comment.
The row was reminiscent of an earlier accusation of antisemitism leveled by Charles Kushner, the US ambassador to France, against President Emmanuel Macron. In a letter to the Wall Street Journal, Kushner – the father of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law – accused Macron of failing to tackle a surge of antisemitism. Macron said Kushner’s brusque letter was a “mistake,” and an “unacceptable statement for somebody who is supposed to be a diplomat.”
This week’s spat in Belgium came soon after the US ambassador to Poland, Tom Rose, announced on February 5 that the US would cut ties with Włodzimierz Czarzasty, the speaker of Poland’s lower parliament, the Sejm. Three days earlier, Czarzasty had said at a press conference that Trump “does not deserve” the Nobel Peace Prize he has long coveted.
Rose said Czarzasty’s “outrageous and unprovoked insults” toward Trump had “made himself a serious impediment” to Washington’s “excellent relations” with the Polish government. “We will not permit anyone to harm US-Polish relations, nor disrespect (Trump),” he said.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who leads a center-left majority in the Sejm, told Rose: “Allies should respect, not lecture, each other. At least this is how we, here in Poland, understand partnership.” Rose replied that he will “always defend my President without hesitation, exception or apology.”
Fried, who served as ambassador to Poland from 1997 to 2000, said the incidents marked a departure from how diplomacy is traditionally conducted. A diplomat’s job, he told CNN, “is to advance the president’s agenda.”
“But that doesn’t necessarily mean you defend the president from all attacks. You figure out … how to work within the politics of the country you’re in, to advance the president’s agenda. That means sometimes ignoring attacks and focusing on the agenda,” he said.
Fried praised Rose’s work so far in Warsaw, but cautioned: “You will seldom win a public fight on somebody else’s ground. … If you go down the road of fighting on somebody else’s turf, you’ll lose.”
The Trump administration has, however, seemed to enjoy picking fights on European turf, from Vice President JD Vance’s dressing down of European allies in Munich to Trump’s frequent outbursts online. Fried, who also served as the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs under President George W. Bush, said ambassadors in Europe may be following this more belligerent lead.
“They are responding to what they think is expected of them. Unfortunately, that is a reasonable expectation,” he said. “They’re dealing with a very thin-skinned White House. They may think that if they don’t respond forcefully, they can be attacked by somebody else in Trump-world.”
But choosing which “attacks” to ignore can reap rewards, he said. He recalled how José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero swept to power in Spain in 2004 after campaigning heavily against the ongoing US invasion of Iraq and accusing Prime Minister José María Aznar of being President Bush’s puppet.
After the election, Fried recalled how Bush had called Zapatero to congratulate him on his victory. “He basically said, ‘Hey, it was a campaign – I get it. But even if we disagree, we have to work together on a whole bunch of stuff, and I’m happy to do so.’ Zapatero was stunned. He was overheard saying, ‘What? He reaches out to me after all I said?’”
Bush “knew what he was doing,” Fried said. “A whole bunch of problems were avoided because Bush sort of shrugged. He didn’t take this stuff personally. He had his eye on bigger prizes.”
