A number of Donald Trump's ambassadors have very questionable experience for the jobs they are doing. That is not unusual — presidents throughout history have given out posts as favors for fundraising or other political or personal supports. The problem with some of these diplomats is they seem to forget they actually have a job to do — and it's not ingratiating the boss by insulting his host country because they think that is what the boss wants to hear.
Case in point: Bill White, who worked for and ran a museum for the USS Intrepid before quitting abruptly amid a pay-for-pay state pension scandal for which he eventually paid a $1 million settlement in 2010. He used to raise money for Democrats. Then he shifted to raising money for Trump in 2016 and was installed as Trump's ambassador to Belgium four months ago. It's not going so well.
White lashed out a Belgian health officials for charging three Jewish Mohels (physicians) for allegedly performing circumcisions on babies without medical training. It's none of his business, officially, but he accused the health officials of anti-Semitism yesterday in an X post and demanded that they be left alone. The three Mohels in question have become the focus of an "emergency campaign" for religious freedom by the Combat Antisemitism Movement and other pro-Jewish and and pro-Israel organizations close to the president's orbit, so this isn't quite coming out of nowhere. Yet White's attempt to mimic Trump is rather absurd. Here is the full post:
According to the Washington Post, White has been summoned by the Belgian foreign minister Maxine Prévot. “Personal attacks against a Belgian minister and interference in judicial matters violate basic diplomatic norms,” Prévot said.
“Mister Ambassador,” lawmaker Kjell Vander Elst posted. “As a member of parliament, elected by the Belgian People, my free advice to you: MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.”
U.S. ambassadors represent the foreign policies of the president and the U.S. Department of State in other capitals. During Democratic administrations, Republicans attacked American officials working overseas who appeared to be pursuing "woke causes" like trans rights in other countries. Much of this was the fodder for the dismantling foreign aid in the second Trump administration. One might ask how White's interference in another country's domestic judicial process is any different.
But not all "rogue ambassadors" appear to be ideological. Tom Rose, the U.S. Ambassador to Poland just cut off ties with the Speaker of parliament because he did not support Trump's Nobel eace prize aspirations. This was also announced on X.
Tom Rose was a senior advisor and political strategist for Vice President Pence during the first Trump administration. Before that he was a conservative radio show host and editor of the Jerusalem Post in Israel, where he lived for 10 years, from 1997 to 2005. He has been Trump's ambassador to Poland for a year.