French official demands US give back Statue of Liberty after 140 years because America ‘despises her’

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.’”