White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt chastised a low-ranking French politician who made headlines for demanding that the United States return the Statue of Liberty.
During a Monday press briefing, Leavitt reminded Raphaël Glucksmann, a member of the European Parliament and co-president of a small left-wing party in France, that he would be speaking German if it weren’t for American troops.
Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked Leavitt on Monday if President Donald Trump would give the Statue of Liberty, which has graced New York City’s harbor since the 1800s, back to France.
“Absolutely not,” Leavitt said with a smile. “And, 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,” she added, nodding to how American troops liberated France from Nazi Germany’s occupation in World War II.
In an address to supporters of his Public Place party on Sunday, Glucksmann told the United States, “Give us back the Statue of Liberty.”
“It was our gift to you. But apparently you despise her. So she will be happy here with us,” Glucksmann said, garnering applause and whistles from his audience.
Glucksmann’s party has posted accusations on its website that Trump is wielding power in an “authoritarian” manner and is “preparing to deliver Ukraine on a silver platter” to Russia.
In his speech, Glucksmann referenced New York poet Emma Lazarus’ words about the statue, the “mighty woman with a torch” who promised a home for the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
“Today, this land is ceasing to be what it was,” Glucksmann said.
French President Emmanuel Macron has let his prime minister, François Bayrou, play the role of being a more critical voice of the Trump administration. Bayrou condemned what he called the “brutality” that was shown to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his White House visit, and suggested that Trump’s administration risked handing victory to Russia when it paused military aid to Ukraine.
UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural arm that has the Statue of Liberty on its list of World Heritage treasures, notes that the iconic monument is U.S. government property.
It was initially envisaged as a monumental gesture of French-American friendship to mark the 100th anniversary of the July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence.
A war that erupted in 1870 between France and German states led by Prussia diverted the energies of the monument’s designer, French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi.
The gift also took time to be funded, with a decision taken that the French would pay for the statue and Americans would cover the costs of its pedestal.
Transported in 350 pieces from France, the statue was officially unveiled Oct. 28, 1886.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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