“You’re in friendly territory,” said Daniel Fried, a former US ambassador to Poland. But recent public spats among three US ambassadors and their respective hosts have given Europe a taste of the Trump administration’s firmer, less hushed approach to diplomacy. To Europe, they are needless antagonism which violates “basic diplomatic norms.”This week, Bill White, the US ambassador to Belgium, criticized the country for its approach to Jewish ritual circumcision and accused the country of antisemitism. He called Vandenbroucke “very rude” and claimed the minister had refused to shake his hand or be photographed with him. Fried praised Rose’s work so far in Warsaw, but cautioned: “You will seldom win a public fight on somebody else’s ground.

Source: CNN February 21, 2026 20:01 UTC