Trump secretary claims France would be speaking German if it wasn’t for America

A harsh exchange of words

MEP Raphael Glucksmann previously said: "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'.

"We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home."

Now, the White House has slammed the notion from Glucksmann.

The White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a reporter who asked if Trump would give back the statue 'absolutely not'.

She said: "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."

Her comments have sparked a heated debate online with some pointing out that America wouldn't exist as a nation if it weren't for French weapons in the American Revolution.

The idea for the statue was originally conceived by French politician and US Constitution expert Edouard de Laboulaye as an emblem of the friendship between the French and the Americans.

It was then sculpted by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and took 20 years to build before it was dismantled and shipped to New York.

Glucksmann also suggested France would welcome the government researchers and employees who were fired en masse under the new administration.

He said: "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."