The Celebrities Who Said They Would Leave America if Trump Won
For years, one recurring story in American political culture has involved celebrities announcing that they would leave the United States if Donald Trump won an election. The statements have generated headlines, jokes, arguments and plenty of social-media posts claiming that Hollywood stars promised to flee the country but ultimately stayed.
There is truth behind some of those claims, but the story is more complicated than a viral list of celebrities supposedly packing their bags.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, several well-known entertainers publicly said they would consider leaving the United States if Trump became president. CBS News documented statements from figures including Cher, Ne-Yo, Chelsea Handler, Keegan-Michael Key, Lena Dunham, Neve Campbell and Bryan Cranston. Their proposed destinations ranged from Canada to Spain, while some statements were clearly made humorously.
Lena Dunham, for example, said she would move to Vancouver if Trump won. Bryan Cranston said he would “definitely move” to Canada, while Ne-Yo joked about becoming neighbors with Canadian rapper Drake. Chelsea Handler said she had purchased a house in Spain and indicated she would leave if Trump won.
Cher made perhaps one of the most memorable statements. In 2016, she joked about moving to Jupiter if Trump became president. Years later, ahead of the 2024 election, she again said she would leave the country if Trump returned to the White House. In a 2023 interview with The Guardian, she said she had considered leaving if Trump won again.
The important question, however, is what happened after the election.
Trump won the 2016 presidential election, defeating Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College. Despite the many pre-election declarations, most of the celebrities who had discussed leaving did not permanently relocate outside the United States.
The Guardian examined the issue in 2018 and reported that celebrities including Snoop Dogg, Lena Dunham, Chelsea Handler, Ne-Yo, Neve Campbell and Bryan Cranston remained in the United States despite their earlier statements. Barbra Streisand had also discussed moving to Australia or Canada, but there was no indication that she had followed through on the threat.
Miley Cyrus also became part of the story. After Trump’s 2016 victory, she posted that she was moving, but later clarified that she was not abandoning the country. By 2026, reporting still described her as living in the United States.
That history explains why the phrase “they said they would leave” has become a familiar political talking point. It is based on genuine public comments, but it can become misleading when every celebrity statement is presented as a firm legal commitment to emigrate permanently.
There was another wave of similar claims surrounding the 2024 presidential election. After Trump defeated Kamala Harris, social-media posts claimed that celebrities such as Bruce Springsteen, Robert De Niro, Robert Downey Jr., John Legend and Tom Hanks had announced that they were leaving America.
Those particular claims were not supported by evidence. PolitiFact investigated the posts in November 2024 and found that none of those celebrities had publicly announced plans to leave the United States following the election. Some of the viral stories originated from satire or websites that had previously published false claims.
Bruce Springsteen provides an interesting example because he actually had joked about leaving the country if Trump won reelection. PolitiFact noted that Springsteen had made such a comment in 2020, but found no evidence that he subsequently announced plans to leave the United States after the 2024 election.
Eva Longoria was another celebrity whose situation became part of the debate. After Trump won in 2024, headlines suggested that she had left America because of the election. Longoria pushed back against that interpretation, explaining that she had already been spending substantial time in Europe and that her relocation was connected to work and other personal circumstances rather than Trump’s victory.
At the same time, several celebrities really did make statements about potentially leaving if Trump won in 2024. Cher, Sharon Stone and Barbra Streisand were among those publicly discussing the possibility. Stone talked about considering a home in Italy, while Streisand said she would have difficulty living in the country under another Trump presidency and mentioned England as a possible destination.
These examples demonstrate why the subject continues to generate controversy. Some celebrities clearly made public statements about leaving. Some later reconsidered, clarified their remarks or simply stayed. Others were falsely reported as having announced departures when they had not.
It is also worth remembering that political comments made during emotionally charged election campaigns do not necessarily represent permanent decisions. Celebrities, like other citizens, can change their minds. A statement about moving abroad can be an expression of frustration, a joke, a conditional promise or a genuine plan. Without evidence of an actual relocation, it is difficult to treat every statement as proof that someone intended to permanently leave America.
The broader pattern is nevertheless well documented. Since at least the 2016 campaign, prominent entertainers have periodically talked about leaving the United States if Trump won. Some gave specific destinations, while others used exaggerated language or humor. After Trump won in 2016, most of the widely cited celebrities did not permanently leave the country.
The story resurfaced during the 2024 campaign and afterward, but many newer social-media claims were inaccurate. Fact-checkers found that several celebrities who were supposedly fleeing America had never actually announced such plans.
So when a post says, “All these liberal celebrities said they would leave the USA if Trump won,” the underlying history deserves a closer look. Some really did say they would leave. Some were joking. Some changed their minds. And some names circulating online were never actually connected to a genuine promise to leave.
The most reliable way to understand the controversy is to look at the original statements rather than viral lists. Political disagreements can produce dramatic predictions, especially among celebrities whose comments receive enormous attention. But saying “I might leave” during an election campaign is very different from actually moving permanently to another country.
The record therefore contains both genuine celebrity promises and exaggerated internet mythology. The most interesting part of the story may not be whether celebrities threatened to leave, but what happened afterward: in many prominent cases, the predicted departures never became permanent reality.
