A French politician is requesting the U.S. return the Statue of Liberty in the wake of President Donald Trump’s policies that appear to side with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Raphaël Glucksmann, a member of the European Parliament, made the remarks at a convention of the Place Publique center-left movement Sunday.

"Give us back the Statue of Liberty," said Glucksmann, according to Agence France-Presse. "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.’”

France gifted the statue, which stands at 305 feet tall and weighs 450,000 lbs, to the U.S. on July 4, 1884, to commemorate the 108th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The sculpture, created by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, currently sits on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. There is a replica of the statue in the Seine river in Paris.

The U.S. likely would not have won the Revolutionary War had it not been for financial backing from the European nation. The U.S. did not return the favor when the French Revolution began in 1789.

Glucksmann, a member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, is a staunch supporter of Ukraine.

Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office and suggested Ukraine started the war even though Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Zelensky was ultimately asked to leave the White House last month following the meeting.

"We gave it to you as a gift,” Glucksmann continued, citing the United States’ founding values of freedom and liberty. “But apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home.”

During a White House briefing Monday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the U.S. would “absolutely not” send the statue back to France.

“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,” added Leavitt, pointing to U.S. military assistance during World War II after Nazi Germany seized France.

Glucksmann concluded his remarks by stating France would welcome top researchers who had been fired in the cuts to the National Institutes of Health and similar organizations.

"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.’”

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From France comes a call for Trump's America to return Lady Liberty. Here's why it won't happen

Hey, America: Give the Statue of Liberty back to France.

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 that was a gift from France nearly 140 years ago.

As a member of the European Parliament and co-president of a small left-wing party in France, Raphaël Glucksmann cannot claim to speak for all of his compatriots.

But his assertion in a speech this weekend that some Americans “have chosen to switch to the side of the tyrants” reflects the broad shockwaves that U.S. President Donald Trump's seismic shifts in foreign and domestic policy are triggering in France and elsewhere in Europe.

“Give us back the Statue of Liberty,” Glucksmann said, speaking Sunday to supporters of his Public Place party, who applauded and whistled.

“It was our gift to you. But apparently you despise her. So she will be happy here with us,” Glucksmann said.

The White House brushed back on the comments Monday, saying France instead should still be “grateful” for U.S. support during World War I and World War II.

Can France claim it back?

Dream on.

UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural arm that has the statue on its list of World Heritage treasures, notes that the iconic monument is U.S. government property.

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.

But a war that erupted in 1870 between France and German states led by Prussia diverted the energies of the monument's designer, French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi.

The gift also took time to be funded, with a decision taken that the French would pay for the statue and Americans would cover the costs of its pedestal.

Transported in 350 pieces from France, the statue was officially unveiled Oct. 28, 1886.

Is France's government offering asylum to Lady Liberty?

No. French-U.S. relations would have to drop off a cliff before Glucksmann found support from French President Emmanuel Macron's government.

For the moment, the French president is treading a fine line — 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's tariff hikes.

Macron has let his prime minister, François Bayrou, play the role of being a more critical voice. Bayrou tore into the “brutality” that was shown to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his White House visit and suggested that Trump's administration risked handing victory to Russia when it paused military aid to Ukraine.

Glucksmann's party has been even more critical, posting accusations on its website that Trump is wielding power in an “authoritarian” manner and is “preparing to deliver Ukraine on a silver platter” to Russia.

In his speech, Glucksmann referenced New York poet Emma Lazarus' words about the statue, the “mighty woman with a torch” who promised a home for the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

“Today, this land is ceasing to be what it was,” Glucksmann said.

What is the White House saying?

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked Monday about Glucksmann's comments, and responded that the U.S. would “absolutely not” be parting with the iconic statue.

“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," Leavitt said, apparently referencing the U.S. fight with allied powers to free France from Nazi occupation in World War II and alongside France during World War I. "They should be very grateful.”

But the debt of gratitude runs both ways. Leavitt skipped past France's key role in supporting the future United States during its war for independence from the United Kingdom.

Leavitt is one of three administration officials who face a lawsuit from The Associated Press 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.

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