A French politician said Sunday the U.S. should give back the Statue of Liberty in an apparent critique of President Donald Trump‘s leadership.
“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,'” said French member of the European Parliament Raphaël Glucksmann
Sunday, according to local outlet France 24.
France gifted the Statue of Liberty to the U.S. after the Civil War, and it has become a renowned symbol of democracy and freedom.
“‘We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home,'” Glucksmann said at a convention of his Place Publique movement, according to France 24.
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The U.S. government owns the Statue of Liberty, according to UNESCO World Heritage Convention reports, so take-backsies might not be possible for France.
“Absolutely not,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in a briefing Monday when asked if the U.S. would give it back. “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.”
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Glucksmann, a center-left politician with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, alluded to Trump‘s mass layoffs in his statements, though much of Europe has also been caught in the crosshairs of Trump’s other controversial moves like tariffs and Ukraine-Russia negotiations.
Trump’s tariff orders have sparred the beginning of a trade war with the European Union, which announced Wednesday it would respond to Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs with counter-tariffs on $28 billion worth of U.S. exports next month.
After a contentious meeting between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shook up the U.S.’s previous steadfast support, many European leaders rushed to publically back Ukraine against Russia.
But it was the Trump administration’s federal workforce reductions, which have axed more than 100,000 workers and cut funding to several agencies, that the French lawmaker responded to:
“The second thing we’re going to say to the Americans is: ‘If you want to fire your best researchers, if you want to fire all the people who, through their freedom and their sense of innovation, their taste for doubt and research, have made your country the world’s leading power, then we’re going to welcome them,'” continued Glucksmann, according to France 24.
Thursday, federal judges ordered the Trump administration to reinstate tens of thousands of workers, though Leavitt said the administration plans to fight it.
Contributing: USA TODAY’s Christopher Cann, Rachel Barber; Reuters
Kinsey Crowley is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected]. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @kinseycrowley.bsky.social.
