Donald Trump’s envoy to Paris has called France’s foreign minister and pledged not to interfere in the country’s domestic affairs, a day after he was barred from talking to government officials for failing to attend a formal meeting at the ministry.
The foreign ministry said on Monday that Charles Kushner would not be permitted to carry out his diplomatic duties until he had explained his refusal to comply with the summons over US comments about the killing of a far-right activist in France.
A ministry official said on Tuesday that the ambassador, whose son Jared is married to the US president’s daughter Ivanka, had called the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, who had “reiterated the reasons that led to the summons”.
France “cannot accept any form of interference or manipulation of its national public debate by authorities of a third country”, Barrot reportedly told Kushner, who “took note and expressed his willingness not to interfere in our public debate”.
The official said the two men had agreed to meet in the coming days to “continue working towards a close bilateral relationship, which celebrates its 250th anniversary this year”. They did not say when Kushner’s diplomatic access would be restored.
Kushner failed to show up for a meeting at the ministry at 7pm on Monday to which he had been summoned after the US embassy in Paris reposted state department comments about the killing of far-right activist Quentin Deranque.
“When you have the honour of representing your country, the USA, in France, as ambassador, you abide by the most basic customs of diplomacy and respond to summonses from the foreign ministry,” Barrot said on Tuesday morning.
“I believe all French people share the same feeling,” the minister told France Info radio. “We do not accept that foreign countries can come and interfere in, then insert themselves into, our national political debate, whatever the circumstances.”
Barrot said the incident would “in no way affect the relationship between France and the United States”, which he said had “weathered other storms”, but would “naturally affect [Kushner’s] ability to carry out his mission in our country”.
Diplomatic sources told French media that Kushner, a real-estate magnate with an estimated net worth of $3.2bn (£2.4bn), had cited personal commitments as his reason for not attending the meeting, instead sending a senior embassy official.
The no-show was Kushner’s second since his appointment to the Paris embassy last May. He also failed to attend after a summons to the ministry in August, after writing an open letter to Emmanuel Macron criticising what he described as a lack of government action to tackle the “dramatic rise of antisemitism in France”.
Deranque, died from head injuries after clashes between radical left and far-right supporters on the sidelines of a protest against a politician from the leftwing France Unbowed (LFI) party in Lyon on 12 February.
Six men suspected of involvement in Deranque’s death have been charged over the killing, and a parliamentary assistant to an LFI MP has been charged with complicity.
The US state department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism posted on social media on Sunday that it was monitoring the case, adding that “violent radical leftism” was on the rise and should be treated as a public safety threat.
“We expect to see the perpetrators of violence brought to justice,” it said. The US embassy in France posted a French translation of the comments.
Deranque’s killing has also caused a diplomatic feud between France and Italy, whose rightwing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, called the death “a wound for all of Europe”. Macron criticised her for speaking about French domestic affairs.
Barrot on Sunday denounced any attempts to exploit the killing. “We reject any instrumentalisation of this tragedy, which has plunged a French family into mourning, for political ends,” he said. “We have no lessons to learn, particularly on the issue of violence, from the international reactionary movement.”
The spat follows a row between the Belgian government and the US ambassador to Brussels, Bill White, who has demanded Belgium drop a “ridiculous” and “antisemitic” investigation into three Jewish men suspected of performing illegal circumcisions.
White called Belgium’s health minister “very rude” in a social media post. Belgium’s foreign minister, Maxime Prévot, said it was “false, offensive and unacceptable” to suggest Belgium was antisemitic, and accused White of violating diplomatic norms.
White has since announced that another Belgian socialist politician, Conner Rousseau, has been barred from the US.
In 2005, Charles Kushner pleaded guilty to 16 counts of tax evasion, making false statements and witness tampering – including hiring a sex worker to seduce his brother-in-law who was testifying against him.
He spent 14 months in prison before being pardoned by Trump in 2020. Three years later he donated $1m to Trump’s Make America Great Again Inc Super Pac.
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