French Lawmaker Demands Return Of The Statue Of Liberty After Trump’s First 2 Months: U.S. ‘Doesn’t Deserve It’

Baila Eve ZismanMarch 19, 2025, 6:19 pmNews >

In response to the first few months of President Donald Trump’s second term, a French lawmaker has demanded the US return the Statue of Liberty, declaring the country “doesn’t deserve it” anymore.

Designed by Auguste Bartholdi, the iconic statue, a longtime symbol of freedom associated with the American Dream, was given to the US as a gift from France following the Civil War.

On Sunday, Raphaël Glucksmann, a French member of the European Parliament, asserted he “does not think that the US represents the values of the Statue of Liberty anymore.”

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At the convention of Glucksmann’s Place Publique movement, he addressed America, “We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home,” as reported by the local outlet France 24.

Glucksmann declared, “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.’”

He continued, “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.’”

Despite Glucksmann’s impassioned plea, US government owns the Statue of Liberty. In a briefing on Monday, White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt responded to Glucksmann’s order, saying, “Absolutely not.”

She asserted, “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. So they should be very grateful to our great country.”

The Statue of Liberty was first unveiled in 1886, intended to be a symbol of “freedom, inspiration, and hope,” as written on the landmark’s website. The website further specifies, “Her crown representing light with its spikes evoking sun rays extending out to the world; the tablet, inscribed with July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals, noting American independence; to symbolize the end of slavery, Bartholdi placed a broken shackle and chains at the Statue’s foot.”