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I’m not some sort of secret Reform voter, OK? As a Brit (albeit a Brit abroad), I’ve got no problem with rich immigrants coming to the UK and taking all our mansions. I just think they really ought to integrate and not bring their funny foreign ideas with them.
Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, I’m talking to you. The California couple arrived in the UK last year just before Donald Trump won the election. As soon as the votes were in, they declared they weren’t going back, and would stay on the saner side of the Atlantic. I’m not sure how the immigration logistics worked, but it seems “one in, one out” schemes don’t apply to people coming in on big jets, only small boats. The pair bought a fancy pad in the Cotswolds and DeGeneres buttered up the locals during a public appearance in July by declaring “Everything here is just better.”
It’s easy to be upbeat during a British summer, when all is green and pleasant. Now that the winter gloom has set in, however, rumour has it that the fairweather Brits are plotting a return to Trumpland. According to the Mail on Sunday (so take all this with a few pinches of salt), the couple miss their friends and can’t stand the thought of another British winter. I understand being homesick, but you lose a bit of street cred if you flee creeping fascism only to run straight back to it because you’re not used to being a bit chilly. As my mother would say: just put on another jumper, Ellen! Abandon your weird American ideas about how the sky ought to be blue.
DeGeneres and De Rossi aren’t the only celebs apparently rethinking just how averse they are to living under Trump. Ever since Trump burst on to the political scene, Hollywood has resembled an airport lounge: so many people have been announcing their imminent departures. But few have followed through. In 2016, for example, the comedian Amy Schumer told Newsnight that she would “move to Spain or somewhere” if Trump won the election. She later explained this was “said in jest” and, to be fair, it can be hard to know when Schumer is trying to be funny.
Miley Cyrus also pulled out the “just joking” card to explain why her relocation plans changed. In March 2016 she announced she would move if Trump became president, adding: “I don’t say things I don’t mean!” Cyrus later clarified that she does, in fact, say things she doesn’t mean. Barbra Streisand, meanwhile, threatened to leave ahead of both the 2016 and 2024 elections but still doesn’t appear to have made any moves.
There are, however, a handful of US celebrities who have actually fled and don’t appear to have any plans to return. In March Courtney Love, who has lived in London since around 2019, said she was planning to get her British citizenship. While this doesn’t seem to be purely because of Trump 2.0, she called the political situation in the US “frightening”.
At about the same time, the comedian Rosie O’Donnell revealed that she had relocated her family to Ireland, citing concerns for her non-binary child Clay. “When you know it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America, that’s when we will consider coming back,” she said in a TikTok video. While it’s easy to make fun of self-deporting celebrities – many of whom are insulated by their wealth from the effects of Trumpism – O’Donnell was probably sensible to leave. The comedian has been in a long-running feud with Trump and, earlier this year, the president said he was considering stripping her of her US citizenship. He might not be able to do this legally, but when a man with a cult-like following is calling you out in a country with escalating political violence, it’s natural to feel worried for your personal safety.
There may not be a massive celebrity exodus yet, but the US does seem to be experiencing a brain drain because of Trump. A poll from the journal Nature found that 75% of researchers in the US are considering leaving; international students also seem to be losing interest in venturing stateside. Meanwhile, some experts in authoritarianism see the writing on the wall and are packing their bags. “We Study Fascism, and We’re Leaving the US,” the headline of a video op-ed three Yale professors made for the New York Times earlier this year read before they left for Canada. A chilling message indeed. But nothing compared with a damp winter in the Cotswolds.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
