I
The number of Americans residing abroad is not a well-known fact. According to the Association of American Residents Overseas (AORO), an NGO based in Paris, by the end of 2023 this figure was estimated at around 5.5 million people, distributed mainly in ten countries: Mexico (1,182,3460), Canada (1,050,898), the United Kingdom (325,321), Israel (281,137), Germany (238,652), Australia (218,216), South Korea (129,499), France (117,462), Japan (111,021) and Spain (108,684).
The reasons for this mobility are usually diverse but are related to factors such as perceptions of safety (high rates of armed violence, the highest in Western culture), the search for relatively reasonable rents in the context of the real estate crisis, enjoying more vacations and free time, the lower cost of living in other countries and making the most of retirement.
Following Trump’s election victory, there has been a surge in the number of Americans who have expressed their intention to settle abroad for political reasons, but this is not an unprecedented phenomenon.
In 2016, shortly after his election for a first term, a movement in this direction arose, an expression of opposition to what would ultimately turn out to be one of the most chaotic presidencies in history. And it would unleash unusual levels of discontent and resistance, especially from women who reacted against a candidate who boasted of being able to grab them by the pussy without anything happening. Or from voters reluctant to accept the idea of a politician claiming that he could shoot a person on 5th Avenue in New York and not lose voters.
Taking celebrities as a benchmark, on this second occasion several have expressed their intention to leave after November. Among them are the following:
Eva Longoria: Actress. She was one of the first to socialize the idea that she would leave the United States to share her time between Spain and Mexico. “If [Trump] keeps his promises, the United States will be a scary place. I’m privileged,” she said. “I get to escape and go somewhere. Most Americans aren’t so lucky. They’re going to be stuck in this dystopian country, and my anxiety and sadness is for them.” The former star of the series Desperate Housewives said about Trump: “The shocking part is not that he won. It’s that a convicted criminal who spews so much hate could hold the highest office.”
Barbra Streisand: Actress and singer. Streisand shared with TV presenter Stephen Colbert the idea that she would not live in the United States if Trump returned to power. “I would move. I couldn’t live here under an administration like that.” The United Kingdom would probably be her destination.
Ellen DeGeneres: Actress and TV presenter. After the election, she moved to the United Kingdom with her wife, Portia de Rossi. She said she has no intention of returning while Trump is in power.
Although according to the Daily Mail, her move was not only a response to the election result but also a decision to close the chapter of her television career. Several sources told the outlet that the couple had planned to move so that DeGeneres could begin her retirement.
America Ferrera: Actress. She said she was looking at schools in London for her children before moving. She stressed that she thought the country she lived in was better than that.
Laverne Cox: Actress, producer, and defender of the rights of the LGBT+ community. She shared similar feelings to those of Barbra Streisand and revealed that she has plans to move to Europe or even the Caribbean.
Sharon Stone: Actress. The protagonist of Basic Instincts (1992) has verbalized her plans to leave. She said she is considering buying a house in Italy. “I think it is a smart idea at this point. This is one of the first times in my life that I’ve actually seen anyone running for office on a platform of hate and oppression.”
Vivian Wilson: Elon Musk’s trans daughter has expressed her desire to leave, regardless of her father’s political subordination to Trump. She said that she’s been thinking about it for a while, but confirmed it now. She doesn’t see her future being in the United States, even if [Trump] is only in office for four years, even if anti-trans regulations are not magically implemented, because the people who voluntarily voted to approve them will not be going anywhere shortly.
II
But now a new phenomenon is taking place, especially on social media. It is led by Trump supporters who are, among other things, spreading fake news about celebrities who have not said or reiterated that they would leave, but who deep down they would like to put out of the game for having positioned themselves against Trump before or during his last presidential campaign.
One of these cases is that of the rocker Bruce Springsteen, who has been attributed with having said that he would leave the United States with Trump’s new victory, undoubtedly a consequence of the support he gave to Kamala Harris on October 3. “Springsteen has promised to leave the United States when Trump wins. Will Obama also make that generous promise?” one of them asked on that website. “I can’t wait to see him pack his bags and leave the country after Trump wins the elections next month,” said another.
In mid-November, the same page published a meme with an image of Springsteen and Robert De Niro with the following text below: “Bruce Springsteen leaves the United States with Robert De Niro. There is no respect for us here.”
Both stars had indeed floated the idea of leaving the country for political reasons. In 2020, for example, Springsteen told a journalist that he might move to Australia if Trump was re-elected; but he later clarified that it was a joke. Before, in 2016, when another journalist asked De Niro if he would leave if Trump became president, his response was: “It’s a good question, I don’t know.”
The same type of message has been exerted on actress Whoopi Goldberg. “A lot of people have said that they would leave if Trump were elected. And, once again, people assume that’s what I said,” said the star of Sister Act, adding that she had been incorrectly put on the list of celebrities who would leave.
As in the previous two cases, this “news” originated on The Patriots Network, a pro-Trump humor site dedicated to making up stories that are then passed “seriously” to social media, including that comedian Jimmy Kimmel would end his show after Trump’s inauguration and that Elon Musk was suing the African-American actress for $3 billion.
But Goldberg was emphatic at the time. She said this will be the second time she makes it clear: she won’t leave this country so that he (Trump) rules over her, for no reason. She added that she’s been here since the late 18th century, her family spent years trying to vote and doing everything that Americans are allowed to do, such as protesting, standing up, and saying we don’t agree. And she said that they don’t have the right to tell her to leave. They don’t have the right to make that decision for her. “I’m staying!”
