TOI correspondent from Washington: Most people who pledged to leave the United States if Donald Trump was elected President in 2016 — and there were thousands — never went anywhere. They hunkered down and waited with gritted teeth for him to be defeated, which he was in 2020, except that he never went away. Now, with even greater polarization in 2024 and Trump talking of vengeance and retribution amid prospects of a return to the White House, chatter about scramming from the US has returned — this time even in the upper echelons of political circles.
Kamala Harris herself was asked on Howard Stern‘s show earlier this week if she would leave the country if Trump won because, the host suggested, she would not be safe. Harris, who as the incumbent vice-president and Chair of the Senate would have to certify a Trump win if he is elected, skirted the question saying she’s “doing everything I can to make sure he does not win.”
Others have been more vocal about scooting this time, including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who recently told MSNBC that he’s “already working on a foreign passport with a completely different name” given Trump’s threat of retribution against those he regards as enemies. In fact, the MAGA supremo has gone so far as to support the demand that some of his more militant followers have sought a “televised military tribunal” to try Liz Cheney, a prominent Republican never-Trumper who now supports Kamala Harris, for purported “treason.”
Although Trump has occasionally said the best retribution would be to win the Presidency and provide a good administration, more often than not he has advocated revenge, arguing that his supporters want it because, in his view, Democrats have weaponized the justice system to launch “lawfare” against him and want to put him in prison. Kamala Harris herself famously tweeted “Don’t worry, Mr. President, I’ll see you at your trial,” after he trolled her when she dropped out of the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination process, saying, “Too bad. We will miss you Kamala!”
Trump too seems to be aware that he will be in legal jeopardy if he loses the election and has spoken, more in jest, about leaving the country. Sometimes, he has couched it in terms of leaving out of embarrassment from losing to candidates he deems inferior.
“Running against the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics puts pressure on me. Could you imagine if I lose? My whole life – what am I going to do? I’m going to say I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics. Maybe I have to leave the country, I don’t know,” he told supporters at a campaign rally in Macon, Georgia during the 2020 race. This time too he has spoken of leaving for a cushy life by the beach somewhere if he loses. He has also spoken of moving to Venezuela because, according to him, it has sent all its criminals to the US and is now safer.
“If something happens with this election, which would be a horror show, we’ll meet the next time in Venezuela, because it’ll be a far safer place to meet than our country. You and I will go, and we’ll have a meeting and dinner in Venezuela,” Trump quipped in a recent conversation with Elon Musk.
Musk himself has mused about being targeted if Democrats win, given that he has gone total MAGA and is “all in” for Trump. “If he loses, I’m fucked,” Musk laughed in a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, hours after he appeared at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania wearing a t-shirt that read “Occupy Mars.”
Jokes aside, recent surveys have suggested Americans are giving it more serious thought now than in 2016. A recent survey by the publisher International Living cited in USA Today found that 65% of more than 2,700 readers said that concerns about the political climate prompted them to accelerate plans to relocate overseas. Several other firms that help Americans live or work abroad told the paper that political uncertainty is driving a spike not just in inquiries but in concrete efforts to secure visas, homes, dual citizenship or foreign work permits.
