White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday had some choice words for politician Raphaël Glucksmann, after he suggested the United States should return the Statue of Liberty to France.
“Absolutely not,” Leavitt said at the White Press briefing, when asked about Glucksmann’s proposal. “My advice to that unnamed, low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now. So, they should be very grateful to our great country.”
Glucksmann, a member of the European Parliament and co-president of a French left-wing party, said over the weekend that some Americans “have chosen to switch to the side of the tyrants … who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom,” criticizing the turnover to the Trump administration.
“Give us back the Statue of Liberty,” he said with a smile to a crowd. “We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So, it will be just fine here at home.”
Glucksmann later acknowledged on X that he was partially joking, saying, “no one, of course, will come and steal the Statue of Liberty.” But he said his comments were a “wake up call” to the American people, and specifically called out the Trump administration’s “betrayal of Ukraine and Europe.” International observers have criticized the president for floating the U.S. and Russia taking control of parts of Ukraine as part of a ceasefire agreement to end Russia’s war on the country.
“The statue is yours. But what it embodies belongs to everyone,” Glucksmann said. “And if the free world no longer interests your government, then we will take up the torch, here in Europe.”
