France has barred United States Ambassador Charles Kushner from direct meetings with government ministers, escalating an already tense transatlantic relationship after the envoy declined to personally attend a summons over Washington’s reaction to the killing of a far-right activist in Lyon.
The French Foreign Ministry announced the move on Monday, framing it as a response not just to a missed appointment but to what it described as a failure to understand the basic obligations of the ambassadorial role.
“In light of this apparent failure to grasp the basic requirements of the ambassadorial mission and the honour of representing one’s country, the minister (Jean-Noel Barrot) has requested that he (Ambassador Kushner) no longer be allowed direct access to members of the French government,” the ministry said in a statement. It added that Kushner would still be able to carry out normal diplomatic work and maintain “exchanges” with officials.
The immediate trigger was his absence from a meeting at the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. Instead of attending in person, Kushner sent a senior embassy official, citing personal commitments, according to a diplomatic source quoted by AFP. It was the second time he had declined such a summons, having previously delegated a similar meeting in August 2025 after criticising President Emmanuel Macron over anti-Semitism.
The dispute centres on the fallout from the death of 23-year-old Quentin Deranque, who was beaten during clashes on the margins of a protest. Posts by the US State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism, later shared by the US embassy in Paris, warned about the rise of “violent radical leftism” in France and said the killing “demonstrates the threat it poses to public safety”, adding: “We will continue to monitor the situation and expect to see the perpetrators of violence brought to justice.”
French officials saw the comments as an intrusion into a domestic matter. Barrot’s response was blunt: “We have no lessons to learn, particularly on the issue of violence, from the international reactionary movement.”
Kushner himself has long attracted controversy in the United States, having served a prison sentence for illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering before receiving a presidential pardon from Trump. His personal history has fed into the political sensitivity surrounding his role in Paris, where the optics of representation matter as much as the substance of policy.
The US embassy and the State Department have not publicly responded to the French measures. Meanwhile, the confrontation has dominated French headlines, reflecting the extent to which what would once have been a routine diplomatic disagreement is now read as part of a deeper rupture in transatlantic ties.
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