Raphaël Glucksmann knew exactly what he was doing when he invoked the Statue of Liberty. In a single, stinging line, he turned a cherished American monument back into what it originally was: a French gift, given on faith that the United States would stand for liberty, science, and democracy. Now, amid steel and wine tariffs, and anger over Washington’s stance on Ukraine and attacks on research institutions, he is questioning whether that faith was misplaced.
His challenge isn’t literal cranes-on-Bedloe’s-Island diplomacy; it’s moral theater. “Give us back the Statue of Liberty,” he said, because a country that fires its best researchers and flirts with tyrants doesn’t deserve to cradle her torch. France, he insisted, would gladly welcome both the scientists and the symbol. Behind the provocation lies a deeper wound: a fear that the transatlantic bond built on shared values is rusting, just like copper skin in New York harbo
