Hollywood liberals who said they may leave the US if Trump is re-elected get nervous as hopes of a Biden landslide vanish
- A handful of celebs have said they might leave the US if Donald Trump wins a second term
- They include John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Bruce Springsteen, Tommy Lee and Ricky Martin
- A bevy of A-listers made the same threat in 2016 but never followed through
- If Trump takes home a victory, will this year’s celebs actually pack their bags?
The White House isn’t the only residence on the line this Election Day.
For John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, Bruce Springsteen, Ricky Martin and Tommy Lee, life in America may be hanging in the balance after they threatened to leave the US if President Donald Trump wins another term in office.
We saw this before back in 2016, when a bevy of celebrities including Miley Cyrus, Chelsea Handler, Samuel L Jackson and Amy Schumer promised to ditch the states if the White House fell into Trump’s hands.
None of those A-listers made good on their promise that time. But will the celebs who made the same threat this year follow through?
Chrissy Teigen and John Legend are among a handful of celebrities who have said they might leave the US if President Donald Trump wins a second term in office
John Legend and Chrissy Teigen
John Legend hinted that he and his model wife Chrissy Teigen might pack up their family and leave California back in September in an interview with Cosmopolitan UK.
The Grammy-winner said the couple, who campaigned for Biden in Philadelphia on Monday, are ‘exhausted’ by Trump, calling his leadership ’embarrassing’.
‘Every once in a while you think about it,’ Legend said of leaving the US.
‘We were born and raised here, all of our families are here. It would be hard to leave.
‘But I don’t know what one’s supposed to do when you have a leader who is trying to destroy democracy.
‘At some point, if that project [to destroy democracy] was to be in any way successful, you’d have to think about going somewhere that is a true democracy, that has respect for the rule of law and human rights.
‘If America chooses to be that place then people will have to start thinking about going somewhere else. It is truly disturbing and concerning.’
Legend didn’t say where his family would go.
Despite having recorded one of the most American songs there is – Born in the U.S.A. – Bruce Springsteen said last month that he’ll move to Australia if Trump wins a second term
Bruce Springsteen
Despite having recorded one of the most American songs there is – Born in the U.S.A. – Bruce Springsteen has said he’s fully prepared to move halfway across the world.
‘If Trump is reelected – which he will not be, I’m predicting right now he’s gonna lose – if by some happenstance he should be, I’ll see you on the next plane,’ the New Jersey-native told Australia’s Daily Telegraph last month.
Springsteen has a long history of public attacks against Trump, whom he branded a ‘threat to our democracy’.
‘I don’t know if our democracy could stand another four years of his custodianship,’ he told The Atlantic in June.
Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee said he’d move to the United Kingdom or Greece if Trump wins in an interview last month
Tommy Lee
Springsteen isn’t the only rocker planning to move if Trump wins. Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee made the same threat last month, saying he’ll go across the pond.
‘Dude, I swear to God if [Trump wins] then I’m coming over to visit the UK – I’m out of here,’ Lee told The Big Issue.
He also suggested moving to Greece, where he was born before moving to the US at one year old.
‘I’ll go back to my motherland, go back to Greece and get a house on one of the islands,’ he said.
Explaining his disdain for the president, Lee said: ‘The thing that stings the most is that I feel like we’re embarrassing.
‘I feel like people in Europe and the rest of the world look at America and think: “What the fuck are you guys doing over there? Stop voting for celebrities and get someone real to run the country.”‘
Lee also predicted that Trump would unfairly try to influence the election.
‘This guy is going to do anything to win,’ he said. ‘It’s going to be skullduggery, shenanigans, subterfuge.
‘And also, I feel that if we don’t come out to vote in the numbers we need for a landslide that’s not in his favor, he’s going to contest the election. I don’t think he’s going to want to leave the White House. This thing is not a lock. I don’t care what the polls say.’
Latin pop star Ricky Martin has said he and his husband Jwan Yosef may look to live ‘la vida loca’ outside the US if Trump secures a second term
Ricky Martin
Latin pop star Ricky Martin has said he and his husband Jwan Yosef may look to live ‘la vida loca’ outside the US if Trump secures a second term.
Martin has been working hard to make sure that doesn’t happen by campaigning for Biden so he doesn’t have to make a move.
‘We just take it one day at a time and we’ve had plans like we might leave the country, but no. We have to stay here and we have to fight for our rights and what we believe,’ Martin told Variety last week.
‘I’ve been supporting Biden forever … I think he is the only option we have and he is great and he has been in politics all his life.
‘This is the moment. We all need to get together and be loud about the course of this nation.’
Celebrities who said they’d leave in 2016 … but didn’t
‘Honestly f*** this s**t I am moving if this is my president!’ Miley Cyrus said of Trump in March 2016
Miley Cyrus
What she said before the election: ‘We’re all just f*****g jam between his rich ass toes. Honestly f*** this s**t I am moving if this is my president! I don’t say things I don’t mean!),’ Cyrus wrote in an Instagram post in March 2016.
What she said after: In a video posted on Facebook immediately after the 2016 results were announced, a tearful Cyrus said she would ‘accept’ Trump as her president.
‘And happy hippies, we adjust and we accept everyone for who they are. And so Donald Trump, I accept you,’ she said, referencing her non-profit foundation Happy Hippie.
‘This hurts to say, but I even accept you as the President of the United States, and that’s fine, that’s fine because I think now I want to be a hopeful hippie.
‘But please just treat people with love and treat people compassion and treat people with respect and I will do the same for you.’
Four years later Cyrus is still living in the US, using her platform to repeatedly attack Trump and urge followers to vote Democrat.
Chelsea Handler made an unconventional plea for her followers to vote in an Instagram video on Tuesday (pictured)
Chelsea Handler
What she said before the election: ‘I did buy a house in another country just in case. So all these people that threaten to leave the country and then don’t — I actually will leave that country,’ Handler told ABC’s Live with Michael and Kelly in May 2016.
What she said after: Handler, 41, confirmed she isn’t going anywhere in an emotional episode of her Netflix show, Chelsea, after the results came in.
‘It’s easy to throw in the towel and say that we’re gonna leave, or I’m gonna move to Spain,’ she said. ‘Because I want to move to Spain, I really, really want to move to Spain right now.
‘But everyone in my office is like: “You have a responsibility. You have a voice, you need to use it and you have to be here.”‘
Amy Schumer has been campaigning hard for Biden – after threatening to leave the US in 2016 if Trump won
Amy Schumer
What she said before the election: ‘My act will change because I will need to learn to speak Spanish. Because I will move to Spain or somewhere,’ comedian Schumer declared in a BBC Newsnight interview in September 2016.
‘It’s beyond my comprehension if Trump won. It’s just too crazy,’ she went on.
What she said after: Schumer, her bluff called, released a tearful statement on Instagram after the election and described her intention to leave as a ‘joke’.
‘First of all the interview where I said I would move was in London and was said in jest,’ she said. ‘Not that anyone needs more than a headline to count something as official news.’
She continued: ‘Anyone saying pack your bags is just as disgusting as anyone who voted for this racist homophobic openly disrespectful woman abuser. Like the rest of us I am grieving today. My heart is in a million pieces. My heart breaks for my niece and my friends who are pregnant bringing children into the world right now.’
Whoopi Goldberg threatened to leave the US if Trump won – but then stayed behind to cover his presidency on The View
Whoopi Goldberg
What she said before the election: ‘The minute you start pointing and saying that person is a rapist and a murderer, it pisses me off because I’ve been part of that when they just use a blanket statement to talk about black people or when they use a blanket statement to talk about white people or women or any other group.
‘I don’t think that’s America. I don’t want it to be America. Maybe it’s time for me to move, you know. I can afford to go. I’ve always been an American, and this has always been my country and we’ve always been able to have discussions.
‘And suddenly now it’s turning into, you know, not them, not them,’ she said on The View in January.
What she said after: Speaking on The View the day after the 2016 election, Goldberg insisted that she’s in the US to stay.
‘I’m not leaving the country that I was born and raised in,’ she said. ‘You don’t get to tell me that I’m going.’
‘If that motherf****r becomes president I will move my black ass to South Africa,’ Samuel L Jackson said in December 2015
Samuel L Jackson
What he said before the election: ‘If that motherf****r becomes president I will move my black ass to South Africa.’ His claim was made on a Jimmy Kimmel sketch in December 2015.
What he said after: Jackson, 67, used Twitter to announce that he plans to stay a couple days after the election – although not before a number of South African newspapers ran breathless articles asking when the actor would be arriving.
‘When you learn the difference between My Actual Opinion & A Kimmel Skit… Maybe we can talk. Till then, I’m Barbed Wire Up Your Asses!! [sic],’ he wrote.
For good measure, the Django Unchained star lambasted Trump and his supporters and compared the Republican victory to the introduction of the Jim Crow laws which enforced segregation.
‘The Last Time I survived Jim Crow I was Poor,’ he wrote, adding: ‘Guess what MOTHERF****S.. Not This Time!! Enjoy your newfound win, Bigly!!’
‘If [Trump] wins, he won’t have to worry about immigration; we’ll all go back,’ George Lopez said in July 2015
George Lopez
What he said before the election: ‘If [Trump] wins, he won’t have to worry about immigration; we’ll all go back,’ Lopez told TMZ in July 2015.
What he said after: The Mexican-American comedian, 55, wrote in an Instagram post the day after the election that he was looking at renting in Mexico or Canada and cracked a joke about ‘needing something stronger’ than the marijuana that had just been legalized in California.
‘I’m gonna Rent first #pelosmelapela [sic], get to know the schools #ohcanada #mexico (California legalized Marijuana- I need something stronger #Whitehorse #whitelines blow away!’ he wrote.
But the Los Angeles born star reacted with fury when asked to pack his bags by a Twitter user, saying: ‘Seriously brother. Alright,’ when told it was time for him to ‘pony up and head for the border’.
Four years later, he’s still here and still vehemently anti-Trump.
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