{"id":371557,"date":"2025-08-25T05:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T05:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/371557\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T05:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T05:32:16","slug":"i-would-not-feel-safe-americans-on-the-sorrow-and-relief-of-leaving-trumps-us-for-europe-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/371557\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I would not feel safe\u2019: Americans on the sorrow \u2013 and relief \u2013 of leaving Trump\u2019s US for Europe | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"

The scramble began in November as news broke that Donald Trump<\/a> had been re-elected. Benjamin and Chrys Gorman had long said they would leave the US before seeing Trump inaugurated again, giving them exactly 76 days to sell their home, cars and most of their belongings and move four people, three dogs and two cats to Barcelona.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was saying: we\u2019ve got more time than that, it won\u2019t go that fast,\u201d said Gorman. \u201cMy wife said no, we need to be out of here \u2013 not just on inauguration day, but a few days before. And she was so right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within hours of taking office, Trump signed an executive order<\/a> defining sex as only male or female. The change was to be reflected on official documents, sowing confusion over what it meant<\/a> for Americans with the non-binary identification of \u201cX\u201d in their passports.<\/p>\n

Relief gripped the Gormans as they watched it play out from afar. \u201cOur kid\u2019s passport has an X gender marker,\u201d said Gorman. \u201cSo we managed to escape just in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benjamin, Chrys and Franke Gorman In Barcelona. Photograph: Benjamin Gorman<\/p>\n

Since Trump\u2019s return to power, relocation firms from London to Lisbon and Madrid to Milan say they\u2019ve seen a surge in inquiries from Americans. Undaunted by the gains made by the far right<\/a> across the continent, many Americans cite a desire to escape the US\u2019s increasingly polarised climate and an administration whose wide range of targets has included immigrants<\/a>, diversity measures<\/a> and political opponents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Statistics suggest that the barrage of interest is translating<\/a> into action; in the first two months of the year, US applications for Irish passports were at their highest level<\/a> in a decade \u2013 up 60% from the same period last year. In the first three months of the year, France reported a rise in the number of long-stay visa requests from Americans, while in March, the number of Americans who had solicited British citizenship in the 12 months before surged<\/a> to its highest since record-keeping began in 2004.<\/p>\n

While the figures remain relatively small given the size of the US population, the movement has been galvanised by a steady drip of celebrity announcements. Rosie O\u2019Donnell said in March<\/a> that she had moved to Ireland, describing it as \u201cheartbreaking to see what\u2019s happening politically\u201d in the US, while Ellen DeGeneres recently cited<\/a> Trump\u2019s re-election to explain why she and her wife, Portia de Rossi, had moved to the Cotswolds in 2024. Earlier this month, Jimmy Kimmel revealed<\/a> that he had acquired Italian citizenship, saying that the US under Trump was \u201cjust unbelievable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Across Europe, governments and institutions have sought to capitalise on the exodus, launching programmes aimed at attracting stateside talent or, in the case of one enterprising<\/a> Italian village, seeking to bolster its population with disgruntled Americans.<\/p>\n

Among the first was France\u2019s Aix-Marseille University, which in March put out an offer<\/a> of \u201cscientific asylum\u201d for researchers reeling from Trump\u2019s crackdown on academia. Three months later, the university said it had received more than 500 inquiries for the 20 spots.<\/p>\n

Deborah Harkness. Photograph: Deborah Harkness<\/p>\n

Those selected included Lisa, a biological anthropologist who was preparing to move her husband, a school teacher, and two children across the Atlantic. \u201cWhen Trump was re-elected, the feeling was: \u2018We gotta go,\u2019\u201d she told the Guardian<\/a> earlier this summer. She asked that her last name not be used to protect her university in the US from reprisals.<\/p>\n

The sentiment had strengthened as she watched the Trump administration take aim <\/a>at universities, dismantle research funding and undermine science. \u201cWe\u2019re months into this presidency, and a lot has already happened. I can\u2019t imagine what\u2019s going to happen in another three and a half years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opportunity to swap the northern US for southern France was welcome, but not without its drawbacks. \u201cIt is a big pay cut,\u201d she said. \u201cMy kids are super gung-ho. My husband is just worried that he won\u2019t find a job. Which is my worry too, because I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be able to afford four of us on my salary.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January, as thousands of Trump faithful turned up<\/a> in Washington DC for a televised viewing of his inauguration, Deborah Harkness knew the time had come to act on her longstanding dream of moving to southern Spain. \u201cAs soon as he was inaugurated, I started making plans,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Months later she was in M\u00e1laga, watching as Trump\u2019s administration sought to drastically reshape the judiciary<\/a>, public broadcasting, higher education and immigration. \u201cWhat frightens me most is how normalised it\u2019s all become,\u201d she said. \u201cThe chaos, the cruelty, the disinformation \u2013 that\u2019s how authoritarianism takes hold.\u201d<\/p>\n

The view was echoed by Monica Byrne, who in 2023 left North Carolina for Cork, Ireland. Trump was a factor in her decision, but only in that she saw his rise to power as a symptom of the bigger issues facing the US. \u201cI didn\u2019t know whether Trump specifically was going to come back, but I knew fascism was,\u201d she said. \u201cSo it was more about the abject failure of the Democrats and knowing they weren\u2019t going to protect us from fascism generally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monica Byrne in Sligo, Ireland. Photograph: Monica Byrne<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s re-election cemented her decision to remain abroad and enrol in a master\u2019s programme in Ireland. \u201cI get frustrated when people say: \u2018You\u2019re very lucky or you must be happy you\u2019re not there,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThere is some degree of that, but 90% of the people I care about and love are in the States and are affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Barcelona, Gorman and his family have been slowly settling into the rhythms of the city. \u201cSo many things have just been shockingly better,\u201d he said. \u201cFor example, my wife was saying that the other day she was walking along La Rambla and a car backfired. And she was the only person who ducked.\u201d<\/p>\n

While they were thrilled to have left behind the gun violence and shooter drills of the US, the challenge was now in explaining to their loved ones that they were unlikely to return home once Trump\u2019s term ends. \u201cI don\u2019t foresee this movement ending with the end of the Trump administration<\/a> \u2026 I think that the rot is much deeper,\u201d said Gorman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he wouldn\u2019t have a huge base of support, Trump is just, you know, your crazy uncle yelling things on a porch. That base of support needs to be addressed. Why was there support for this kind of fascism?\u201d he added. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a much deeper question. I would not personally feel safe going back to a country that doesn\u2019t fully reckon with its fascist impulses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The scramble began in November as news broke that Donald Trump had been re-elected. Benjamin and Chrys Gorman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-371557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115087772493220555","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}