{"id":33097,"date":"2025-04-19T14:00:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T14:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/33097\/"},"modified":"2025-04-19T14:00:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T14:00:22","slug":"from-france-comes-a-call-for-trumps-america-to-return-lady-liberty-heres-why-it-wont-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/33097\/","title":{"rendered":"From France comes a call for Trump’s America to return Lady Liberty. Here’s why it won’t happen"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS (AP) \u2014 Hey, America: Give the Statue of Liberty<\/a> back to France. <\/p>\n

So says a French politician who is making headlines in his country for suggesting that the U.S. is no longer worthy of the monument, which was a gift from France nearly 140 years ago.<\/p>\n

Rapha\u00ebl Glucksmann, as a member of the European Parliament and co-president of a small left-wing party in France, can\u2019t claim to speak for all of his compatriots. <\/p>\n

But his assertion in a speech this weekend that some Americans \u201chave chosen to switch to the side of the tyrants\u201d reflects the broad shockwaves<\/a> that U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s seismic shifts in foreign and domestic policy are triggering in France and elsewhere in Europe. <\/p>\n

\u201cGive us back the Statue of Liberty,\u201d Glucksmann told supporters of his Public Place party, who applauded and whistled, on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was our gift to you. But apparently you despise her. So she will be happy here with us,\u201d Glucksmann said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: From France comes a call for Trump\u2019s America to return Lady Liberty. Here\u2019s why it won\u2019t happen\n <\/p>\n

AP correspondent Julie Walker reports on the fight over the Statue of Liberty after a French lawmaker demands its return.<\/p>\n

The White House brushed back on the comments Monday, saying France instead should still be \u201cgrateful\u201d for U.S. support during World War I and World War II. Glucksmann, in turn, then shot back that French gratitude for Americans\u2019 wartime sacrifices is \u201ceternal,\u201d but added: \u201cIf the free world no longer interests your government, then we will take up the torch, here in Europe.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNo one, of course, will come and steal the Statue of Liberty,\u201d he wrote in X posts. \u201cThe statue is yours. But what it embodies belongs to everyone.\u201d <\/p>\n

Can France claim it back? <\/p>\n

Dream on. <\/p>\n

UNESCO, the United Nations\u2019 cultural arm that has the statue on its list of World Heritage treasures, notes that the iconic monument is U.S. government property.<\/p>\n

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><\/p>\n

But a war that erupted in 1870 between France and German states led by Prussia diverted the energies of the monument\u2019s designer, French sculptor Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric-Auguste Bartholdi.<\/p>\n

The gift also took time to be funded, with a decision made<\/a> that the French would pay for the statue and Americans would cover the costs of its pedestal.<\/p>\n

Transported in 350 pieces from France, the statue was officially unveiled on Oct. 28, 1886.<\/p>\n

Is France\u2019s government offering asylum to Lady Liberty? <\/p>\n

No. French-U.S. relations would have to drop off a cliff before Glucksmann found support from French President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

For the moment, the French president is treading a fine line \u2014 trying to work with Trump and temper some of his policy shifts on the one hand, but also pushing back hard against some White House decisions, notably Trump\u2019s tariff hikes.<\/p>\n

Macron has let his prime minister, Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou, play the role of being a more critical voice. Bayrou tore into the \u201cbrutality\u201d<\/a> that was shown to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his White House visit<\/a> and suggested that Trump\u2019s administration risked handing victory to Russia<\/a> when it paused military aid to Ukraine. <\/p>\n

Glucksmann\u2019s party has been even more critical, posting accusations on its website that Trump is wielding power in an \u201cauthoritarian\u201d manner and is \u201cpreparing to deliver Ukraine on a silver platter\u201d to Russia.<\/p>\n

In his speech, Glucksmann referenced New York poet Emma Lazarus\u2019 words about the statue, the \u201cmighty woman with a torch\u201d who promised a home for the \u201chuddled masses yearning to breathe free.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cToday, this land is ceasing to be what it was,\u201d Glucksmann said.<\/p>\n

What is the White House saying?<\/p>\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when asked about Glucksmann\u2019s comments, responded that the U.S. would \u201cabsolutely not\u201d be parting with the landmark in New York Harbor.<\/p>\n

Leavitt is one of three administration officials named in a lawsuit by The Associated Press<\/a> on First and Fifth Amendment grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy advice to that unnamed low-level French politician would be to remind them that it\u2019s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now,\u201d Leavitt said Monday, apparently referencing the U.S. fight with Allied powers to free France from Nazi occupation during World War II and alongside France during World War I. \u201cThey should be very grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n France US Statue of Liberty-Leavitt 176\n <\/p>\n

During a news conference, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says the U.S. will not heed a French lawmaker\u2019s call to hand back the Statue of Liberty.<\/p>\n

But the debt of gratitude runs both ways. Leavitt skipped past France\u2019s key role in supporting the future United States during its war for independence from the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

In his subsequent follow-up, Glucksmann said that his call for Lady Liberty to travel back across the Atlantic to France had been intended as \u201ca wake-up call.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all in Europe love this nation to which we know we owe so much,\u201d he posted. \u201cIt will rise again. You will rise again. We are counting on you.\u201d <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP journalist Zeke Miller contributed to this report from Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS (AP) \u2014 Hey, America: Give the Statue of Liberty back to France. So says a French politician…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[19430,32,19433,34,2000,299,36,16831,19431,19432,4179,19428,7140,7142,285,19429,183,49,7150,5213,2601,10673,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-33097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-associated-press","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-emma-lazarus","11":"tag-emmanuel-macron","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-france","15":"tag-france-government","16":"tag-franois-bayrou","17":"tag-frdric-auguste-bartholdi","18":"tag-general-news","19":"tag-karoline-leavitt","20":"tag-new-york-city-wire","21":"tag-ny-state-wire","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-raphal-glucksmann","24":"tag-travel","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-congress","27":"tag-united-states-government","28":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","29":"tag-washington-news","30":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114364994372971775","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}