President Donald Trump, alongside Ambassador to France Charles Kushner, right, walk to the raising of the US flag on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, D.C., in June. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo
The French government has barred Ambassador Charles Kushner from meeting with government officials after he failed to show up for a summons.
Kushner, the U.S. ambassador to France and Monaco, was summoned Monday after making comments about a criminal case in Lyon, calling it “violent radical leftism.”
When he didn’t show up for the meeting, the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs barred Kushner from meetings with French ministers.
“It’s not primarily a bilateral issue, it’s a question of the basic expectations attached to the mission of an ambassador,” a French official told The Hill. “We just wanted to underline that he will not be granted direct access to ministers and members of the government, but he can carry out his duties [and present himself at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs].”
Last week, police in France arrested 11 people for the beating death of a far-right activist at a protest in Lyon. Quentin Deranque, 23, died Feb. 14 after suffering a severe brain injury from the attack.
“Violent radical leftism is on the rise and its role in Quentin Deranque’s death demonstrates the threat it poses to public safety,” the U.S. embassy in France and the State Department Bureau of Counter-Terrorism said on X.
On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said he would summon Kushner, “because the embassy issued a commentary on this event, which concerns the national community. We reject any interference in this event,” Barrot said on French radio.
But Kushner, the father of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, didn’t show up for the meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, which is a breach of diplomatic protocol.
Kushner “needs to be able to have this discussion with us, with [the foreign ministry], so that he can resume the normal exercise of his duties as ambassador in France,” The Guardian reported Barrot said Tuesday.
“When you have the honor of representing your country, the United States of America, in France as ambassador, you abide by the most basic customs of diplomacy and you respond to summonses from the foreign ministry,” Barrot told France Info radio.
“I believe all French people share the same feeling,” he added. “We do not accept that foreign countries can come and interfere in, then insert themselves into, our national political debate, whatever the circumstances.”
Kushner cited personal commitments for his inability to attend and sent a senior embassy official, The Guardian reported.
Kushner was appointed to the Paris job in May, and also failed to show to a summons in August after he published an open letter to French President Emmanuel Macron accusing the government of failing to take action on anti-Semitism.
“Public statements haranguing Israel and gestures towards recognition of a Palestinian state emboldened extremists, fuel violence and endanger Jewish life in France,” Kushner wrote. “In today’s world, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.”
This week in Washington
President Donald Trump speaks alongside Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Lee Zeldin in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Thursday. The Trump administration has announced the finalization of rules that revoke the EPA’s ability to regulate climate pollution by ending the endangerment finding that determined six greenhouse gases could be categorized as dangerous to human health. Photo by Will Oliver/UPI | License Photo
