In the wake of Donald Trump’s sweeping victory, liberals are once again making the same anguished declaration whenever a Republican wins the presidency, at least in recent decades: It’s time to flee the country.
But as someone who left the United States because of its culture and governance not once, but twice, I have some advice: Don’t let the politics of fear displace you. It’s much more important to find your compatriots and to create a life worth living, no matter where that is.
There is a much-repeated cliché about people following the vagabond life. You are either running away from something or running toward something. But as all good vagabonds know, a destination is more than a point on a map. Those who profess they want to flee a Trump presidency, who see ruin on the horizon, would benefit from imagining what it is they want instead of reacting to what they fear.
The first time I left the United States with no return ticket, I was not yet an adult. I was disgusted by U.S. involvement in arming the contras, the rebels fighting Nicaragua’s Sandinista government; the increased power of the conservative agenda, including hostility to unions; and the burgeoning polarization of the culture wars.
I quickly fell in with others who also had no desire to return to their homes. Some had been traveling for a decade. We were fruit pickers, buskers, panhandlers and hotel workers. Some fell into homelessness; others got lucky with house-sits or bartending jobs.
We saw worlds outside our home countries, fell in love, found places we’d dreamed of and did what it took to stay there. For me that place was Athens. This was before the internet and the smartphone. If you wanted to get lost, you could.
I returned to the United States in 1991 to be with family, planning to save enough money for a second trip. But soon I learned I was pregnant and ended up choosing a different journey altogether. I raised a child and worked as a bartender, landscaper, prisoner advocate, receptionist and reporter, all the while writing books and trying to get published. The train stations and beaches and squats and comrades I had made traveling were never far from my mind.
My next departure was after the first Trump victory in 2016. I didn’t want to live in a nation capable of electing a Donald Trump, with his world of endless self-promotion, dishonesty and accumulation. I didn’t want to watch his hatred and lies become accepted or rationalized. But it wasn’t just Mr. Trump. I had become a workaholic, sometimes spending 12 hours a day staring into the void of a glowing computer screen. My partner and I lived in part of the Lower East Side that eventually became gentrified beyond recognition. Every year I felt more certain that to succeed in an atomized consumer culture was to fail as a human being.
This time, I wasn’t leaving to escape. I knew what it was I wanted. And so I knew exactly where I would go.
We went back to Athens, settling for most of the year in Exarcheia, a neighborhood with a strong cooperative spirit and tradition of protest. We found the things all expatriates want: a reprieve from the noise and news of home; sunshine; good food; views of mountains and the sea; and cafes where people talk instead of work.
But above all we found community — close ties with friends and neighbors who are dedicated to maintaining and protecting a neighborhood where people of different ethnicities, classes and generations mix happily. It’s a haven for anarchists, who often take part in neighborhood-building. But it’s not for everyone. Protesters clash with the police and set cars on fire. Tear gas can fill the streets. Many residents are hostile to developers and tourists.
Being there crystallized for me the life I was seeking, one of bravery and camaraderie.
It’s impossible to predict how many people will voluntarily leave the United States because of Mr. Trump, although it’s sure to be a small number. The post-pandemic age of nomadic work and golden visas has made such an escape all the easier, especially for first- and second-generation American children of European immigrants who can return to countries their families once left for better lives in the United States. Few governments keep track of citizens who emigrate. But hints can be gleaned from other statistics.
In 2015, roughly 6,800 Americans applied for Canadian residence. After Mr. Trump’s inauguration in 2017, that number jumped to over 9,000. According to a 2023 Gallup poll, 17 percent of Americans said they wanted to leave the country permanently. In the latest polling from 2024 that number had risen to 21 percent.
American Citizens Abroad estimates 3.9 million Americans were living abroad permanently as of 2023. According to World Population Review, as of 2024 those millions of Americans were living in 158 different countries. The largest number, about 800,000, were in Mexico. Financial advisers and immigration experts are now anticipating a new surge of Americans leaving.
Would-be Trump ex-pats should be aware that in this age of social media and American cultural dominance, there is little way to avoid the United States. Mr. Trump’s reach will go far beyond the borders of this nation. American culture is an ether that can’t be contained.
There are two ways to leave Trump’s America. Go abroad where you are needed, learn the language and help solve local problems by bringing an immigrant spirit of hard work. In our community in Athens, this has included helping establish migrant shelters and joining volunteer fire brigades. Or, stay home in the United States and put in the time to fix things, encouraging a spirit of mutual aid in towns and neighborhoods instead of contributing to polarization.
What I’ve learned from my travels and strategic exits from the United States is this: There is no escape from the world, just the need to build a better one.
The post Running Away From Trump’s America Is Complicated. I Should Know. appeared first on New York Times.
