France Called. It Wants Its Statue of Liberty Back.

Give me your tired, your poor, your…international statuary catfights carried out over social media? Whether anyone was asking for the gritty reboot of The New Colossus or not, here it is: Raphaël Glucksmann, a member of the European Parliament who is part of the leadership of France’s Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, suggested in a speech Sunday that America “give us back the Statue of Liberty,” saying that Donald Trump and his government “have chosen to switch to the side of the tyrants.”

Lady Liberty, who has wowed with her signature “hold up a big torch” arm routine since her unveiling in 1886, was a gift from France to honor the alliance between the countries.

Glucksmann pointed out that the anti-immigrant stances and less-than-friendly international relations embodied by the current administration were not in line with the spirit of the monument, which is meant to be a symbol of welcome to the shores of America.

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

On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked in her press briefing whether Trump would send the 225-ton statue back as suggested.

“Absolutely not,” she said. “And my advice to that low-level, unnamed French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of they United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now, so they should be very grateful to our great country.”

Glucksmann took to X (formerly Twitter) to respond.

“As the press secretary for this shameful Administration said: without your nation, France would have ‘spoken German,’” he wrote, including a clip of Leavitt’s comments. “In my case, it goes further: I would simply not be here if hundreds of thousands of young Americans had not landed on our beaches in Normandy.”

And, just to make it clear, he wrote in another tweet, “No one, of course, will come and steal the Statue of Liberty.”

Somewhere, the writer’s room for the next installment in the Despicable Me franchise just got very loud.

“The statue is yours. But what it embodies belongs to everyone,” Glucksmann’s social media clarification continued. “And if the free world no longer interests your government, then we will take up the torch, here in Europe.”