Trump’s diplomats have created hard feelings abroad

They have caused tensions with allies, but the White House isn’t making changes.

- BY LAURIE KELLMAN

Do not antagonize one’s opponents unnecessarily, a basic principle of diplomacy says. But as the United States faces a trade war with China and various tensions overseas, President Trump’s emissaries are increasingly ticking off allied countries and being called to account.

Recently, no fewer than three U.S. envoys scrambled to extricate themselves from diplomatic hot water.

Denmark’s foreign minister summoned the top U.S. diplomat in the country to answer for reports that at least three people with connections to Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland, a Danish territory. France summoned the U.S. ambassador, Trump in-law Charles Kushner, over his letter to President Emmanuel Macron alleging the country has not done enough to fight antisemitism.

And the American ambassador to Turkey, longtime Trump friend Tom Barrack, apologized for using the word “animalistic” while calling for a gaggle of reporters to quiet down during a news conference in Lebanon.

But in the other two cases, the Trump administration stood pat. Kushner did not show up for his summonsing, leaving the French to take it up with his No. 2. The top diplomat in Denmark did attend his meeting in Copenhagen, and the U.S. State Department said a “productive conversation” ensued. But behind the scenes in Washington, the Trump administration — through an official who spoke only on condition of anonymity — had a far more casual response.

“The Danes,” the official said, “need to calm down.”

Pattern dates to Trump’s first term

There was much tsk-tsk-ing from the diplomatic world over the indelicate exchanges, which would perhaps have been minor on their own.