Michael Kinsley once said that “a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth—some obvious truth he isn’t supposed to say.” If that’s the proper definition, the French president Emmanuel Macron has committed a gaffe.

Emmanuel Macron privately branded Boris Johnson a “clown” and a “knucklehead”, according to reports in France as Anglo-French relations were described as the worst since Waterloo.

The French president is reported to have lashed out to a small group of advisers in response to the fallout between the two countries over the Channel migrant crisis last week.

There could be almost any direct context for calling Boris Johnson a clown and a knucklehead. The terms apply with equal accuracy and force irrespective of circumstance. The man is a buffoon.

Presumably, the reason that Macron wasn’t supposed to voice this obvious truth is that he doesn’t actually want Anglo-French relations to plummet to Waterloo levels. On the other hand, if you can’t level with “a small group of advisers” without it leaking across the English Channel, maybe your biggest problem isn’t your loose lips.

I guess my bigger question is why anyone outside of 10 Downing Street should be offended. It’s not like the Brits don’t know that Johnson is a gargantuan dunderhead. Yes, they voted for his party knowing that it would make him their prime minister, but that’s precisely the issue. It’s not Johnson’s ridiculousness that’s a national shame, but the fact they freely opted for the ridiculous brand. They should own their decision rather than get upset that foreign leaders make accurate, and private, observations.

I’m an expect on these matters because I’m an American who just lived through four years of a Trump presidency. I don’t know why anyone was willing to tarnish America’s reputation and legacy by electing that man, but I do know that the people who made that decision carry the primary blame for the tragic results.

So, it’s not Macron but the British people who made the gaffe. Everyone is laughing at them except we Americans. We’d like to laugh, but we don’t have a leg to stand on.