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.
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.”
