During his tenure, Gérard Araud became known as the diplomatic dean of social media.
By Karen DeYoung Karen DeYoung Associate editor and senior national security correspondent Email Bio Follow April 19 at 12:01 AM On Thursday, the eve of his last day as French ambassador to the United States, Gérard Araud tweeted an analysis of France’s “yellow vest” protests; questions about the use of sanctions as a tool of foreign policy; a U.S.-topped list of national prison populations; and a soothing Monet painting, “to remind us of the simple beauty of the world.
In a recent farewell interview, before moving to private life in New York from the early-20th-century Kalorama mansion that is the ambassador’s official residence, Araud reflected on a particularly turbulent time in Washington. He arrived in 2014, after five years as French ambassador to the United Nations.
Trump, he said, is merely the manifestation of the phenomenon. “I think that too many people are obsessed by the way the president is behaving,” he said. “It would be much more interesting to have a real debate on the social, economic and political crisis of the United States . . . and also the crisis of the Western democracies.”
With Trump, Araud said, the traditionally chaotic transition period between presidents was exacerbated by the absence of personnel in senior jobs and continual turnover.
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