White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt got herself and the Trump administration into hot water after providing a very controversial response when asked about a French politician’s proposal to return the Statue of Liberty.
On March 16th, the French Member of the European Parliament Raphaël Glucksmann suggested during a convention of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats Party (S&D) that his party would ask the US to return the Statue of Liberty.
“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,’” Glucksmann said jokingly according to Politico.
“We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home,” Glucksmann said according to France24, which noted that the Statue of Liberty was given to the United States by France as a gift in 1886.
Glucksmann’s comment made headlines fairly quickly and Politico reported that it was likely in response to Washington’s decision to halt aid to Ukraine. Whatever prompted the statement, it didn’t go over well with Trump’s White House Press Secretary.
According to Mediaite, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy questioned Leavitt about the situation, saying: “There is now a member of the European Parliament from France who does not think the U.S. represents the values of the Statue of Liberty anymore.”
Leavitt responded by attacking Glucksmann before she went on to say that the French politician should be thanking the United States for saving France from the Germans in World War II. However, she wasn’t very tactful about it.
“Absolutely not,” Leavitt told Doocy. “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,” Leavitt added. It should be noted that Leavitt is the official spokesperson for the White House and Trump’s administration and her comments were a profound departure from international decorum.
Mediaite noted in its reporting that France, particularly the French Navy, was critical for the success of US forces in the Revolutionary War and American independence. The treaty that ended the war was signed in Paris in 1783.
