US considers rejecting French ambassador appointment
The United States is considering whether to reject France’s choice of Aurelien Lechevallier as its ambassador to Washington amid ongoing disputes over human rights issues at the United Nations. Tensions escalated after the U.S. opposed extending the term of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, criticizing his stance on certain democracies. France responded by condemning the U.S., claiming it no longer upholds its reputation in human rights. During a U.N. Security council meeting, U.S. and French representatives engaged in a heated exchange, leading to a U.S. walkout. Additionally, president Donald Trump has criticized France’s 3% tax on American tech companies and threatened tariffs on French wines and spirits unless France drops the tax. Macron dismissed these threats, emphasizing that tariffs between G7 nations are unproductive and refusing to yield to U.S. demands. These diplomatic tensions reflect broader disagreements over human rights policies and trade issues between the two countries.
The United States is reportedly weighing whether or not to reject the French government’s selection for its next ambassador to Washington, D.C., as the two countries feud over human rights.
Aurelien Lechevallier, the French foreign ministry chief of staff, was selected by President Emmanuel Macron to be the nation’s next ambassador to the U.S., with the hope he would take up the position by September. But sources inside the State Department now claim, according to Reuters, that a brewing feud at the United Nations jeopardizes that appointment.
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“The United States is very disappointed in the irresponsible and disrespectful rhetoric from the French,” a State Department official told the Washington Examiner. “We are responding appropriately to their comments.”
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Last week, the U.S. delegation voted against extending the term of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk — an official whom U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz accused of “lecturing free, sovereign democracies like the United States, the U.K., and Israel, while cozying up to the world’s worst oppressors.”
The French mission in Geneva issued a statement denouncing the U.S. position, writing on social media, “The U.S. used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore. Today, it stands alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali & Russia, isolated. And the world no longer listens to it.”
When the French delegation took the floor at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Monday, their U.S. counterparts staged a walkout in protest.
Deputy U.S. Ambassador Dan Negrea said the delegation was tired of France’s “moral outrage” and said it has thus far put up with the finger-wagging “out of a sense of camaraderie and mutual respect.”
“Today, I remind them that it is the United States that remains the beacon of liberty for the world,” Negrea said at the Monday meeting. “As such, we will not be affording them the benefit of listening to their politicized drivel until they renounce their condescending and disrespectful rhetoric and behave in a manner commensurate with their seat on this council.”
Separately from the drama at the U.N., President Donald Trump has been butting heads with Macron over France’s 3% levy on American tech companies. The president has threatened to take action against French imported spirits if that penalty is not lifted.
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“I asked him not to charge American companies, and if they do, I have no choice but to charge a 100% tariff on all champagnes and all wines coming out of France,” Trump told the New York Post this week. “All [Macron] has to do is get rid of the sales tax, and he wouldn’t have that kind of pressure.”
Macron said Monday in an interview that “tariffs don’t do anyone any good, especially tariffs between G7 countries” — adding that he will not cave to the White House’s demands because “that is not how it works.”
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