At a press conference today, White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt responded to a French politician's statements that the US should return the statue in New York to France on the grounds that it no longer embraces the values represented by the Statue of Liberty. Responding
to a question about whether US President Donald Trump would return the Statue of Liberty to France, Leavitt said, "Absolutely not. And I have some advice for this low-level French politician, whose name is not mentioned. If it were not for the US, the French would already be speaking German. So they should be extremely grateful to our country."
The request in question came from French parliamentarian Raphal Glucksmann. In a statement on Sunday, Glucksmann claimed that the US no longer represented the values that led France to gift the Statue of Liberty to the US, and requested that the Statue of Liberty be returned to its country.
Glucksmann said, "We have something to say to the Americans who choose to side with dictators and fire researchers who defend scientific freedom. Give us back the Statue of Liberty."
The Statue of Liberty in New York, USA, was gifted to the US by France in 1886 to celebrate the independence of the US and the relations between the two countries.
