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They Fled Trump’s America. Now They Regret It

In the autumn of 2024, Annie was ready for something new. She was living in the southern United States when her husband received an unexpected job offer that would move them to a town just outside London. They were in their twenties with no kids. “We wanted to take a risk,” she says.

2024年秋天，安妮（Annie）准备迎接新的生活。当时她住在美南地区，丈夫收到了一份意料之外的工作邀请，将他们带到了伦敦郊外的一个小镇。那时他们二十多岁，还没有孩子。她说：“我们想冒个险。”

While researching their new destination on Reddit, TikTok, and Instagram, Annie found Americans eager to explain how enchanting life in the British suburbs could be—all the benefits of a small town, just a short train ride away from one of the biggest cities in the world. The more she read, the sunnier her expectations about the UK’s health care system, social culture, and European transportation systems became.

在Reddit、TikTok和Instagram上研究新目的地时，安妮发现许多美国人热衷于描述英国郊区生活是多么迷人——既能享受小镇的所有便利，又只需搭乘短途火车就能抵达世界大都市。她读得越多，对英国医疗体系、社会文化和欧洲交通系统的期待就越美好。

They moved before the end of the year. But the reality of life in the UK was dramatically different to what she’d imagined. “There are huge misconceptions about access to quality health care, standard of living … the quality of life is significantly lower than in the US,” she says, citing the challenges she experienced with the National Health Service’s maternity care—having moved while pregnant with her first child—as well as the lack of disposable income in Britain, thanks to lower salaries. “Things in the UK that are considered luxury items are very common” in America, like a dishwasher and dryer, she adds.

他们在年底前搬了过去。但英国生活的现实与她的想象大相径庭。她说：“人们对获得优质医疗服务和生活水平存在巨大的误解……生活质量比美国低得多。”她提到了自己在怀孕期间搬家后，在英国国家医疗服务体系（NHS）产科护理方面遇到的挑战，以及由于薪水较低导致的英国可支配收入不足。她补充道，在美国被视为“非常普遍”的东西，在英国却被视为奢侈品，比如洗碗机和烘干机。

Annie says she experienced a high amount of anti-American sentiment straight away. “I found it particularly surprising how people feel so comfortable mocking my accent and culture, even in a workplace environment,” she says. “The UK is very much a place of ‘it is what it is,’ but as Americans we are taught to always improve and strive for better things.” Annie and her husband now have an exit plan for summer next year, the earliest their employers would allow them to relocate back home.

安妮表示，她从一开始就感受到了强烈的反美情绪。她说：“我感到特别惊讶的是，人们竟然可以如此心安理得地嘲笑我的口音和文化，甚至是在工作环境中。英国是一个非常讲究‘现状如此’的地方，但作为美国人，我们从小被教导要不断进步，追求更好的事物。”安妮和丈夫现在已经制定了明年夏天的撤离计划，那是雇主允许他们搬回国内的最早时间。

They’re not alone. Thousands of Americans have, like Annie, relocated to Europe in the last few years. Some left seeking adventure; others, the promise of a “slower” lifestyle outside the American grind. But, for many, these reasons were just bonuses to another kind of escape: political refuge in the wake of Trump’s second term.

他们并不孤单。过去几年里，成千上万的美国人像安妮一样搬到了欧洲。有些人是为了寻求冒险，有些人则是为了逃离美国的高压生活，追求一种“更慢”的生活方式。但对许多人来说，这些理由只是某种逃避的附加品：即在特朗普第二个任期之后寻求政治避难。

Annie is not her real name—in fact, she chose not to share any of the specifics of her work background, her husband’s industry, or the precise places they had lived when we spoke about her desperation to get back to America. Like several other Americans WIRED spoke to about their decision to leave and subsequent regret, Annie wanted to remain anonymous because she is concerned about the professional risks of publicly criticizing life abroad. Others cited recent online backlash when other Americans said they missed home, or, in one case, a realization that the political climate of Trump’s America was not something they could escape by heading to Europe.

安妮并非她的真名。事实上，当我们谈论她渴望回到美国的心情时，她选择不透露任何关于她的工作背景、丈夫的行业或他们居住的具体地点。正如《连线》（WIRED）采访的其他几位谈及离开决定及随后后悔的美国人一样，安妮希望保持匿名，因为她担心公开批评海外生活会带来职业风险。其他人则提到了近期其他美国人因表达思乡之情而遭受的网络抨击，或者意识到特朗普治下的美国政治气候并非通过前往欧洲就能逃避。

For left-leaning Americans concerned about Trump’s reelection, relocation to Europe was presented as a lifeboat: Some claim you can live gentler, freer, and, most of all, morally lighter. Celebrities, including Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, and Rosie O’Donnell, all fled the US for political reasons. Courtney Love announced she was applying for UK citizenship in early 2025, describing the political climate at home as “frightening.” Digital nomad visas introduced after the pandemic in countries like Spain, Greece, and Portugal have made the jump logistically easier.

对于担心特朗普连任的左翼美国人来说，搬迁到欧洲被视为一艘救生艇：有人声称在那里可以生活得更温和、更自由，最重要的是，在道德上更轻松。包括艾伦·德杰尼勒斯（Ellen DeGeneres）与波西亚·德·罗西（Portia de Rossi），以及罗西·欧唐内尔（Rosie O’Donnell）在内的名人都因政治原因逃离了美国。考特妮·洛芙（Courtney Love）在2025年初宣布申请英国国籍，称国内的政治气候“令人恐惧”。疫情后，西班牙、希腊和葡萄牙等国推出的数字游民签证，在后勤层面让这种迁移变得更加容易。

The number of US migrants doubled in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the previous year. In Spain, the number of American residents reached a “record high” in 2026, according to the country’s National Statistics Institute. The Financial Times reported in April that there was a 63 percent increase in American applications to Ireland’s Foreign Births Register, the citizenship path for those with an Irish parent or grandparent, between 2024 and 2025. The UK Home office reported a surge in residency applications from the US between January and March 2025, the highest since records began in 2004.

2025年第一季度，美国移民人数比上一年翻了一番。据西班牙国家统计局数据显示，2026年该国的美国居民人数达到“历史新高”。《金融时报》4月报道称，2024年至2025年间，美国人申请爱尔兰外国出生登记（即拥有爱尔兰父母或祖父母者的入籍途径）的数量增加了63%。英国内政部报告称，2025年1月至3月期间，来自美国的居留申请激增，创下自2004年有记录以来的最高水平。

Private data also reflects the political climate is a major factor. The expatriation company, Expats, released a report earlier this year in which 71 percent of 58,000 respondents “cited the political climate in the United States as a reason for wanting to relocate.” But while Trump 2.0 has more than fulfilled the worst nightmares of many Americans who left, online posts reflect a growing number of them are quietly—and at times apologetically—plotting a move back home, if they haven’t already returned.

私人数据也反映出政治气候是一个主要因素。外派公司Expats今年早些时候发布的一份报告显示，在58,000名受访者中，有71%的人“将美国政治气候作为想要搬迁的原因”。然而，尽管“特朗普2.0”时代已经超额实现了许多离开的美国人最糟糕的噩梦，但网络帖子反映出，越来越多的人正在悄悄地——有时甚至带着歉意地——策划搬回国内，如果他们还没有回来的话。

Sarah Wood González, a journalist and consultant, recently returned to New York after three years in Spain and Edinburgh. She says she had few expectations of her life in Scotland and wasn’t glossy-eyed about Europe but was “surprised and delighted” by how “educated and intellectually curious” everyone was. However, when it came to work, she found the slowness to be a drawback.

记者兼顾问莎拉·伍德·冈萨雷斯（Sarah Wood González）在西班牙和爱丁堡生活了三年后，最近回到了纽约。她说，她对苏格兰的生活几乎没有什么期待，对欧洲也没有抱有幻想，但她对那里的人们“受过良好教育且充满求知欲”感到“惊讶和欣喜”。然而，在工作方面，她发现那种缓慢的节奏是一个缺点。

“Something I had taken for granted is the American outgoingness and default to action, where the question is ‘how can we collaborate?’” she explains. “Generally speaking, I also found that the American work style, for better or for worse, moves much faster and can get to a yes or no in less time.”

“我曾经认为理所当然的一件事是美国人的外向和行动导向，大家的问题总是‘我们如何合作？’”她解释道，“总的来说，我还发现美国的工作风格，无论好坏，节奏都要快得多，能在更短的时间内得出肯定或否定的结论。”

This was a similar reality for Josh, another American immigrant who asked to remain completely anonymous, citing concerns about backlash. He moved to Berlin in 2023, in part anticipating what might happen at the 2024 election, and also because he felt his life had hit standstill post-Covid. He had even lived in Germany before, spoke German, and had friends in Berlin. But his expectations, particularly when it came to his career, didn’t align with reality.

对于另一位要求完全匿名的美国移民乔什（Josh）来说，情况也类似，他同样担心遭到反弹。他于2023年搬到柏林，部分原因是预见到2024年大选可能发生的情况，也因为他觉得自己在疫情后的生活陷入了停滞。他以前甚至在德国住过，会说德语，在柏林也有朋友。但他的期望，特别是在职业方面，与现实并不相符。

“Finding work was so hard, and the endless bureaucracy had grown worse since I’d left,” he tells WIRED. “I missed the friendlier people, freedom of speech, and ease of daily life” in the US. He adds, “If you aren’t born and raised there, and don’t look German, you’ll never be fully accepted.” “I thought that ‘British politeness’ existed as it does

“找工作太难了，而且无休止的官僚主义比我离开时更严重，”他告诉《连线》杂志。“我怀念美国更友善的人们、言论自由以及日常生活的轻松。”他补充道：“如果你不是在那里出生长大的，看起来也不像德国人，你就永远不会被完全接纳。”“我原以为‘英国式的礼貌’就像它所表现的那样存在。”