I’ve asked on this topic before, but this seemed to be a good time to revive it.
As I’ve mentioned before, in 2020, an acquaintance shut down his thriving small business and moved literally across the country because he was certain that political violence would erupt no matter who won the election. His move might even have resulted in his eventual death.
Since then, I’ve kind of taken that kind of action, fairly or unfairly, as the “true” sign of someone’s conviction of future disaster. After all, if you really do believe that Trump is going to sweep across the country murdering those who voted against him with impunity, or even if you just think he’s going to crash the economy in his mad rush for permanent power, it’s irrational to live your life like anything is normal, or will be normal in the future. Even emigration might take too long to save you.
This is something I wonder about every time I see such predictions: I wonder what that person is doing or planning as the result of this belief.
So we come to now. The worst has happened. What is the most severe change you are planning to make with your life as a result? The less you can take it back, the better it fits in what I’m thinking.
Probably nothing but we are seriously looking at moving out of the country. That’s extreme and difficult but we (my family) are considering it and exploring our options. Whether we go depends on how the new government behaves. We just want to be prepared. If nothing happens we had a little fun wondering where in the world we might like to retire to.
I wouldn’t leave my home country for anything.
Hey, it’s bad allover.
I’d rather be here if a problem occurs than in a foreign country where I’d probably be welcomed less. Possibly hated for being a dirty American.
Yep. I’m staying here.
(I think Spain is pretty right leaning, you might wanna tell your Ex-bil)
I am planning to get US-Taiwan dual citizenship in the next few months. If I can stash up enough savings, I hope to move to Taipei or Nantou long-term and live off of passive and remote income. That’s a big monetary if, though. Sure, it’s not the safest place in the world to be when Trump is president, but it still offers better quality of life than Trump America in a number of ways.
The only thing irrevocable about that is that it would require me quitting my current job.
Plan B, which I’ve also thought of for a while, is living and working in Okinawa. I won’t get into a long story, but I might be able to land a good job there.
My Beloved says Portugal sounds reasonable to her, and I think I am beginning to agree with her. if I want to technically state in the U.S. We could always go back to Guam.
We will finalize our new citizenship in the next nine months. (The schedule is set, we just have boxes to tick along the way.) We will remove the last of our savings from Stateside accounts and relocate the money here. And we are talking to an attorney about the process for renouncing our American citizenship while still retaining a partial claim on social security benefits (it’s difficult but possible).
I’m a UK citizen with a green card since my wife is American.
6 months after Trump got in the first time we bought a house in the UK and basically moved here.
So we’ve sort of already done it.
It’s not irrevocable, true, since we still own a house in the US (one of our daughters lives there).
But I don’t think we’ll be spending much time in the US over the next few years.
I’m advising both our daughters to be sure to keep their UK passports up to date.
My gf was a strong Harris supporter, giving her time and money to help her get elected. She further planned to delay retirement for Harris’ first term as her contribution to society/the economy.
Wednesday morning she put in a 4 month notice, getting the wheels turning for retirement. She will begin collecting Social Security (assuming it’s still a thing in 4 months).
It isn’t rash or reckless. She is financially secure.
Wife and I are considering a move to Montana, while it is a red state it’s not very populated and I’ll probably be safe from the eventual race riots in the middle of nowhere.
I don’t know that is a fair analysis of everyone’s reaction to Trump. My wife and I are planning to move, mostly because we think America is a pretty unpleasant place to live and we don’t like being part of it. I do think that some Americans are in real danger, but as a straight white man, the danger to me is to my self respect.
We want to emigrate, but my wife is getting cold feet because she wants to be near her parents. Another option is that we move into deep blue America in the short term and use it as an opportunity to down size so when her folks do die, we can easily leave.
I don’t know. I just don’t know. Stay here in my red town in my red county and hope Trump Bros don’t decided to start shooting people? Move back to blue Illinois? Indulge my life-long dream to live in the UK? Indulge my life-long dream to live in Mexico?
I’m reminded of the poeple who lived in Europe and saw the writing on the wall and got the hell out before the shit hit the fan, c. 1940. I see the writing on the wall. But when the shit hits the fan, is it going to splash on me? That’s the question. Part of me thinks – hopes – that whatever guardrails exist to keep this country from turning into a dictatorship. Part of me hopes that the SCOTUS will shoot down any effort by Trump to punish criticism of him. Part of me hopes that the SCOTUS will shoot down his efforts for a third term, or to name a son as his successor, or this or that. Another part of me looks at the current Court and laughs hysterically at my own stupdity.
There are so many moving parts to this whole thing. At this point, all I can do is sit and wait and see how things shake out.
I live in a very blue area, so no big changes are necessary. But though this area is blue and Trump signs were very few, I was shocked to see an overpass over the main north/south freeway (101) through our town decorated with huge signs “CHRIST IS KING TRUMP IS MY PRESIDENT” yesterday. This overpass is posted for no flags/signs/trespassing due to previous crap like this, but folks are ignoring the law. Sigh.
I’m spending a fair amount of time and money on a third (heritage) citizenship, just in case, and of course continuing my study of the language. I’ve already done zero to fluent, but I want to be able to work professionally.
I started this a while ago, but largely because of trends in the USA.
Several years ago I told friends to make plans to get out, because it can take years. They dismissed me: I hope they were right to do so.
