President Donald Trump‘s U.S. Ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, published his letter to French President Emmanuel Macron in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law and former White House advisor Jared Kushner, wrote to Macron: “I write out of deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it.”
Kushner, the son of Holocaust survivors, continued: “In France, not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized.” The ambassador also criticized Macron’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state, which according to Kushner would “embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France.”
The French Foreign Ministry responded to Kushner’s letter saying it “firmly refutes” the ambassador’s allegations, which it claimed “violate international law, particularly the duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of states, as set out in the 1961 Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations,” and summoned Kushner to the ministry on Monday.
Below is Kushner receiving a “warm welcome” to the embassy by Macron in July.
Grateful for the warm welcome from @EmmanuelMacron and the chance to discuss my priorities as U.S. Ambassador to the French Republic: shared defense responsibilities, freedom and democracy, combatting antisemitism and fair trade practices. pic.twitter.com/KBSvEL6xty
— Ambassador Charles Kushner (@USAmbFrance) July 18, 2025
Note: Kushner’s letter is similar to the letter Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent to Macron last week which also declared that Macron’s recognition of a Palestinian state would inflame antisemitism in France.
Note: In 2020, President Trump pardoned Kushner, who in 2005, was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering, and was sentenced to two years in prison, which he served. The U.S. attorney who sent Kushner to prison was future New Jersey Governor and GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie, who has become a vocal Trump critic. Christie has described the Kushner case he worked on as “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was U.S. attorney.”
On Sunday, Trump threatened to investigate Christie over the 2013 political scandal known as “Bridgegate,” which saw members of Christie’s staff creating traffic jams during rush hour in Fort Lee, New Jersey by closing lanes at the main toll plaza for the upper level of the George Washington Bridge. It’s been suggested that the move was a retributive attack against Mayor of Fort Lee Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who did not support Christie as a candidate in the 2013 gubernatorial election. Christie was at the time a leading contender for the 2016 GOP nomination for president.
