WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has dismissed a request from a French politician to return the Statue of Liberty to France, calling the suggestion ungrateful and unwarranted.
“Absolutely not. 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,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt during a Monday press briefing. “They should be grateful.”
Leavitt’s comments were in response to remarks made by Raphaël Glucksmann, a French member of the European Parliament, who argued that the U.S. under Trump no longer embodied the values the statue represents.
Speaking at a party convention, Glucksmann criticized the administration’s actions and suggested the statue be returned.
“We’re going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: ‘Give us back the Statue of Liberty,’” Glucksmann said.
His comments come amid sweeping changes in the U.S. research sector.
Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, the Department of Health and Human Services has dismissed thousands of scientists and public health officials while cutting research grants nationwide.
Glucksmann suggested that if the U.S. is unwilling to restore these positions and funding, France would be willing to take in American researchers.
However, it remains unclear how France could compel the U.S. to relinquish the statue, which remains the property of the American government.
