Ever for the reason that first time Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, celebrities have vowed to depart the U.S. to flee what they see as oppressive insurance policies. The pattern picked again up when he gained a second time in 2024. Whereas many distinguished figures did not observe by way of on their guarantees, some did. Ellen DeGeneres, Sophie Turner, Minnie Driver, America Ferrera, and Lena Dunham are among the many celebs who turned their backs on the nation they beforehand known as residence due to its fractured political panorama.

It’s no coincidence that a lot of those that felt compelled to depart the U.S. are girls. Trump’s insurance policies that focus on girls’s rights have been criticized at residence and overseas, with Human Rights Watch predicting the state of affairs might be even grimmer throughout his second time period. Different causes celebrities gave for wanting to depart included the president’s assaults on different minorities, like his stances on immigration, the Black group, and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.

Cher, whose son Chaz Bono is trans, has expressed a want to maneuver to protest Trump and his fellow Republicans’ anti-trans payments. “I virtually bought an ulcer the final time [he was president],” she instructed The Guardian in 2023. “If he will get in, who is aware of? This time I will depart.” It’s unclear whether or not she is planning to maintain her promise, as she was gushing about her Malibu mansion practically a month after Trump was elected. However many others have — and so they started taking the required steps properly forward of the 2024 presidential election.

Ellen DeGeneres walked her discuss. In November 2024, DeGeneres and her spouse, Portia de Rossi, moved to the U.Ok. and reportedly put their Montecito residence on the market. “[She’s] by no means coming again,” a supply instructed The Wrap. The couple had been on the lookout for properties within the English countryside for a while, however the 2024 election impressed them to maneuver completely. “[They were] very disillusioned,” an insider instructed TMZ, referring to the electoral defeat of Kamala Harris, whom DeGeneres and de Rossi endorsed.

That is after they determined they wanted “to get the hell out,” the supply added. DeGeneres and de Rossi bought a $18 million farmhouse in Cotswolds, about 90 miles northwest of London. In an early December Instagram put up, DeGeneres celebrated her and de Rossi’s anniversary with a selfie of the 2 (seen above) of their new residence. “So glad we get to journey and discover the world collectively within the subsequent 20 years, and looking out ahead to our first snowy Christmas,” she wrote within the caption.

She additionally used the chance to reassure her followers amid the November 2024 floods in southern England. “P.S. for these of you involved, our UK farmhouse did NOT flood,” she wrote. Whereas the couple appears to be having fun with their new expertise, not every thing is ideal. DeGeneres and de Rossi’s new neighbors have raised points with their plans to construct an extension, arguing it may enhance flood danger and disturb close by Roman ruins, the Day by day Mail reported. 

Sophie Turner left the U.S. and returned to her native U.Ok. in 2024. However Donald Trump’s victory was simply the ultimate straw after years of dissatisfaction with American politics and the rising embrace of far-right ideologies. Turner had wished to depart the U.S. for a very long time. The “Recreation of Thrones” star moved to Los Angeles in 2019, the 12 months she married Joe Jonas. After changing into a mom to 2 women, Turner’s emotions about residing within the U.S. modified.

Turner nervous that the political panorama that took maintain of the U.S. following Trump’s 2016 win would create an unhealthy surroundings for her daughters to develop up in. “The gun violence, Roe v. Wade being overturned … The whole lot simply type of piled on. After the Uvalde [school] taking pictures, I knew it was time to get the f*** out of there,” she instructed Harper’s Bazaar U.Ok. in 2024. She took the 2022 faculty taking pictures particularly onerous.

“I could not fathom being a mom of a kind of youngsters figuring out that this was one thing your nation may repair, that they’d fairly have rights to weapons than give children a proper to life,” she instructed British Vogue earlier within the 12 months. Following Turner’s divorce from Jonas in September 2024, she lastly made the transfer. “I am so glad to be again. It felt as if my life was on pause till I returned to England … I used to be away for thus lengthy,” she stated within the Harper’s Bazaar profile. “

Minnie Driver spent greater than half of her life in Los Angeles, however she put an finish to that chapter forward of the election. In 2024, the British actor made London her residence base, although she nonetheless maintains roots within the Golden State. “Residing in California, you might be considerably insulated. However do you need to go and stay in a bubble?” she instructed The Instances. Nevertheless, residing within the U.S. turned unsustainable not simply due to Donald Trump.

For her, it was the help for what he represents that weighed heavy. “The revelation of the 70 million individuals who actually fairly like a little bit of a racist angle and non-existent immigration insurance policies and dismantling the environmental businesses,” she added. “And so they have been all the time there; they weren’t created by him. He is only a symptom, and now they have a mascot.” Whereas she is glad to be again residence, the “Good Will Searching” actor nonetheless feels a robust connection to her adopted land. “I establish as a Californian,” she stated.

Trump’s second electoral victory seemingly hit Driver more durable than his first win. A 12 months after the 2016 election, she acquired American citizenship and shared her love for the nation. “I am going to inform you what, I turned a duel [sic] citizen on Friday. I’ve by no means been so proud to be an Anglo-American,” she tweeted in December 2017, when the Democratic candidate Doug Jones defeated his Trump-backed rival within the heated Senate particular election in Alabama. 

In 2024, America Ferrera additionally began on the lookout for a extra appropriate life-style overseas. In November, the “Barbie” actor was noticed taking a look at a non-public faculty in a South West London borough widespread with celebs. “She was seen there on the open day and appeared very proud of what she noticed,” a supply instructed Howdy!. “It is a faculty with lots of superstar youngsters at it so her children would slot in very properly.” Ferrera, who shares a son and a daughter with husband Ryan Piers Williams, reportedly believes the U.S. is not a really perfect place to boost a household.

Donald Trump’s win over Kamala Harris helped her make up her thoughts. “America is sick that Donald Trump is President once more,” a supply instructed the Day by day Mail in November. “She is devastated that Kamala misplaced. She thought the nation she lived in was higher than that.” Whereas she needs Sebastian and Lucia to develop up underneath higher insurance policies, she will not reduce all ties together with her native nation. “She goes to proceed to have a presence within the US for work functions and to struggle for Latinas and girls, however she might be abroad for household and to profit her children’ schooling,” the insider defined.

All through the presidential race, Ferrera actively campaigned for Harris. The “Ugly Betty” star highlighted the previous vp’s help for Latino civil and human rights in addition to abortion entry and girls’s rights. 

Lena Dunham began speaking about leaving the U.S. when Donald Trump ran in 2016, per The Hollywood Reporter. Whereas she did not maintain her promise to maneuver to Canada after his win, she slowly left the nation over the subsequent few years and finally settled in London. The U.Ok. wasn’t a random choose, as Dunham’s husband, Luis Felber, hails from there. She has zero regrets. “You do not really feel that you’re being in any manner hemmed in by different individuals’s perceptions,” she instructed The New Yorker in 2024.

Dunham was by no means shy about discussing the myriad methods Trump’s election affected her. She even beforehand blamed him for the burden loss she skilled in 2017. “Donald Trump turned president and I ended having the ability to eat meals,” she stated on “The Howard Stern Present” (by way of Leisure Weekly). “Everybody’s been asking like, ‘What have you ever been doing?’ And I am like, ‘Strive soul-crushing ache and devastation and hopelessness and also you, too, will drop some weight.'”

Regardless of feeling comfy throughout the pond, the “Women” creator saved New York near her coronary heart. “I miss my metropolis, my household, my mates and neighbors and the small enterprise homeowners who I work together with each single day,” she captioned an April 2020 Instagram put up to showcase her help when NYC turned the American epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I miss strolling down the road and the truth that there’s by no means a day I do not see one thing or somebody I need to write about.”