President Macron, control yourself. In an off the cuff remark made on Thursday during the course of a visit to Rio de Janeiro, Mr. Macron called the Haitians who “fired” their prime minister “complete morons” for doing so. He spoke in response to a question from a passerby about the volatile state of affairs in the troubled Caribbean nation.

Haiti’s former and briefly-serving prime minister, Garry Conille, a physician, was fired earlier this month after just four months on the job. The impoverished country has been caught up in a rising tide of gang violence.

The question that prompted the petite tirade, which quickly made the rounds on social media, was “When will France repay Haiti?” 

Mr. Macron was quick to duck the question of remunerations to the country, which gained independence from France in 1804 after years of bloody struggles, but in so doing seemed to rip a page from the Joe Biden “Manual of Tact.”

“Frankly, it is the Haitians who killed Haiti by allowing drug trafficking to flourish,” was the first part of the president’s reply.  “What they did with the prime minister, who was great, they fired him — that’s awful,” he added. “They are total morons,” he went on. “They never should have dismissed him.”

The “they” in question referred to the Haitian transitional council, which is supposed to exercise presidential powers either until an elected president is inaugurated or until  February 7, 2026, whichever comes first. In the Haitian system, the president and prime minister share executive power.

The French word that Mr. Macron used is “con,” an epithet that a French taxi driver might utter when cut off by, say, a garbage truck —  and can be interpreted as a stronger word than “moron.”

In a statement to France’s BFM television, the Élysée Palace said that “the president was accosted before getting into his car to leave for the airport” at Rio de Janeiro before traveling to Chile and that “He was persistently questioned by a Haitian who accused France and the president of being responsible for the situation in Haiti.”

Haiti has for months been wracked by violence linked to rampant drug trafficking. Rival gangs are said to control more than 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Dr. Conille, who had been appointed to his post in June, was let go so soon that any attempt to bring stability to the country seemed preordained to fail. An interim prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, was sworn in last week. 

Mr. Fils-Aimé has a big job ahead. Since November 11, thousands of Haitians have fled their homes as gangs now vie for complete control of the capital. More than 700,000 people have already been displaced after months of escalating violence. 

The UN’s human rights chief,  Volker Türk, said this week that “The latest upsurge in violence in Haiti’s capital is a harbinger of worse to come,” and that “Haiti must not be allowed to descend further into chaos.”

“Port-au-Prince’s estimated four million people are practically being held hostage as gangs now control all the main roads in and out of the capital,” Mr. Türk stated.

The situation appears to be going from bad to worse. On Tuesday gangs in the Pétion-Ville district, on the periphery of Port-au-Prince, attacked police and residents. A deputy spokesman for Haiti’s National Police, Lionel Lazarre, stated that at least 28 suspected gang members were killed in the melee and hundreds of munitions were seized.

Following the episode, Doctors Without Borders said it would suspend critical care across the capital. Discussions are afoot at the United Nations as to whether to transition a Kenyan-led multinational police force in Haiti into a UN peacekeeping mission — a move backed by the Biden administration. 

Paris doesn’t appear to be helping much. On Friday,  France 24 reported that Haiti had summoned the French ambassador following what it called Mr. Macron’s “unacceptable” remarks.