WASHINGTON — The French politician who called for the U.S. to return the Statue of Liberty said it was meant to be a “wake up call” to the “shameful administration” in the U.S. after Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt spurned the suggestion at White House briefing this week.
In a lengthy thread on X that started with “Dear Americans,” the politician, Raphaël Glucksmann, said his request for the iconic statue that was gifted to the U.S. from France 140 years ago to be given back was intended to be symbolic, arguing America, under the current administration, is walking away from the ideals it embodies.
“No one, of course, will come and steal the Statue of Liberty. The statue is yours,” Glucksmann wrote. “But what it embodies belongs to everyone. And if the free world no longer interests your government, then we will take up the torch here in Europe.”
The post marked the latest development in a salvo between the French politician and President Donald Trump’s White House after Leavitt on Tuesday replied “Absolutely not” when asked about Glucksmann’s call for the return of the statue.
“My advice to that unnamed, low-level French politician would be to remind them that it is only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now,” she then quipped, in a reference to World War II.
Glucksmann, who is co-president of a small political party on the left in France called Place Publique, made the original call for the return of Lady Liberty at a rally over the weekend, in which he asserted that some Americans have “ chosen to switch to the side of the tyrants.” He noted that the statue was a gift before adding “But apparently you despise her.”
The Statue of Liberty was given to the U.S. in the 1880’s after the Civil War as a symbol of the two nations’ friendship and a celebration of America’s independence from the U.K. and the end of slavery. For nearly a century and a half it has stood as a marker of democracy and freedom on Liberty Island in the New York Harbor, near Ellis Island, where millions of immigrants, from Europe and elsewhere, arrived in the U.S. starting in the late 19th century.
In his thread on X, the French politician said his country is eternally grateful for the sacrifices of “thousands of young Americans who landed on our beaches in Normandy” in World War II. He went on to argue, however, that from that America time is “so far from what your current President does, says and embodies,” citing the administration’s handling of the war in Ukraine, its approach to science and more.
