“Philippe Close is right”: The “surprising” tweet from US ambassador Bill White in Belgium

“Philippe is right,” US Ambassador to Belgium Bill White wrote on Thursday evening. He added that more cocaine arrived at the port of Antwerp in 2023 than at all American ports combined, backing comments by Brussels Mayor Philippe Close about Belgium’s struggle with drug trafficking.

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Philippe is right. More cocaine arrived at the port of Antwerp in 2023 than at all American ports combined.

Close had said that fewer than 5% of Antwerp’s containers were inspected, despite warnings from senior members of the judiciary. He also said that 60% of the cocaine entering Europe came through the port. White’s decision to endorse a socialist mayor was striking because the ambassador is close to Donald Trump and had previously been more supportive of the liberal MR and the N-VA, while criticizing socialists.

Thomas Dermine, the socialist mayor of Charleroi, was surprised enough to repost White’s message. “This is the first time Bill White, who is very conservative and pro-MAGA, has praised a socialist officeholder,” Dermine said. He viewed the ambassador’s intervention as a direct challenge to Bart De Wever, Antwerp’s former mayor and now prime minister, arguing that the failure in Antwerp had also become his responsibility at the federal level.

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We do not understand why fewer than 5% of the containers at the port of Antwerp are inspected.

The dispute forms part of a continuing political battle over drug trafficking. Socialist mayors in some of the most affected municipalities, including Saint-Gilles, Anderlecht, Brussels City and Charleroi, accuse the federal government of failing to provide enough resources. They also point to Antwerp, where Dermine says only 5% of containers are inspected and police numbers are ten times lower than in Rotterdam.

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This is the first time Bill White, who is very conservative and pro-MAGA, has praised a socialist officeholder.

The seizure figures give White’s comparison some support. Antwerp recorded 116 tonnes of cocaine seizures in 2023, compared with 36.8 tonnes at all US borders. The comparison has limits, however, because it excludes 231 tonnes intercepted at sea by US coast guards in 2025 and relies only on seizure data. Dermine said the wider problem was the flow of cocaine from South America to Europe, with Antwerp now “a weak point on a European scale.”

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The failure in Antwerp is also Bart De Wever’s failure.