Did This Huge List of Celebs Promise to Leave US if Trump Won?

Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, Kim Kardashian, Tom Hanks, Oprah, Bryan Cranston, and Hillary Clinton were among a huge list of celebrities that influencer Andrew Tate said had pledged to leave the United States if Donald Trump won the presidential election.
In an explicit live stream, Tate, who said he would move back to the U.S. after Trump’s victory, rattled off dozens of superstars’ names telling each of them to “f*** off.”
Some of the world’s biggest names lent their support to Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed White House bid. Other big names have previously said they would leave the U.S. if Trump was elected president.
However, as Newsweek discovered, most of Tate’s claims were wrong and others were missing valuable context.
A post on X, formerly Twitter, by user @EM_Highlights, showed Tate listing celebrities who allegedly promised to leave if Donald Trump won the presidential election. The video includes foul and offensive language.
“I have a long list here of all the people who said they were going to leave America if Trump wins,” Tate said.
The list included Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Rob Reiner, Barbara Streisand, Cher, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Megan Rapinoe, Tom Hanks, Amy Schumer, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Bill Gates, Jane Fonda, Madonna, Mark Ruffalo, Kim Kardashian, Bruce Springsteen, George Clooney, Hunter Biden, Oprah, Robert De Niro, Samuel L. Jackson, Miley Cyrus, Travis Kelce, Bobbi Althoff, Rashida Tlaib, Stormy Daniels, Anthony Fauci, George Soros, Diddy, Eminem, Ellen DeGeneres, Sean Penn, Sharon Stone, Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee, Bryan Cranston, Billie Joe Armstrong, and Bono.
Without other explanation, Tate’s claim arguably suggests these people had made claims in the lead-up to the 2024 election.
Newsweek could not find public statements from most of these people saying they would leave the U.S. if Trump was elected. Of those who had, most made their comments during the 2016 or 2020 election cycles. Context has altered many of those comments as well.
Of the celebrities that Tate mentioned, the following made comments that they would or had considered leaving if Trump was elected president:
As previously reported by Newsweek, Goldberg was quoted saying in March 2016 “maybe it’s time for me to move, you know. I can afford to go.”
However, Goldberg clarified her comments on The View in the days after Trump was elected in November 2016.
“A lot of folks have said they were leaving over the course of these last couple years if Trump got elected. And, once again, people assume that that’s what I [said],” Goldberg said, adding that she was “incorrectly lumped” in with such people.
Her full quote was: “You start pointing and saying, ‘This person’s a rapist and a murderer;’ it pisses me off, because I’ve been part of when they just use blanket statements about Black people, or when they use blanket statements 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,” Goldberg added, reading out her previous statement.
Goldberg later said: “Just to be clear, I wouldn’t leave this country for him to piss all over, for any reason. I’ve been here since the late 1700s,” she added.
In November 2016, Goldberg again said that she was “not leaving the country that I was born and raised in. My family spent years trying to get the vote, and trying to do all the things that we as Americans are allowed to do.
“We’re allowed to protest. We’re allowed to stand up and say we disagree. Whether we agree or not, it’s OK. But you don’t get to get to tell me that I’m going. You don’t get to make that decision for me. I’m staying!”
In September 2020, Legend suggested to Cosmopolitan that he and Teigen, his wife, had considered leaving the U.S. because of Trump. The quote was not a pledge, however, as Tate claimed.
“Every once in a while you think about it,” the singer said.
“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.”
Streisand said in an interview with Stephen Colbert in November 2023, “I can’t live in this country if [Trump] becomes president,” adding she might move to England.
She made similar comments in 2016, telling the Australia’s 60 Minutes: “I worry, I don’t take anything for granted, I want Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States but it’s still, there’s still a lot of sexism in ‘A woman being president?”
“Making fun of her, the way he insults her right and left. He has no facts but I don’t know, I can’t believe it, I’m either coming to your country if you let me in or Canada.”
The “Believe” singer vowed to leave in 2016 and 2023, as reported by Newsweek.
“I almost got an ulcer the last time,” Cher told The Guardian in October 2023
“If he gets in, who knows? This time I will leave.”
Schumer considered moving to Spain before the 2016 election. The comedian told the BBC’s Newsnight in September 2016: “My act will change because I will need to learn to speak Spanish because I will move to Spain or somewhere. It’s beyond my comprehension if Trump won. It’s just too crazy.”
The “Born in the USA” singer made lighthearted remarks in October 2020 that he’d go as far as Australia if Democratic nominee Joe Biden didn’t win.
“I love Australia,” Springsteen told the Australian press. “Every time, we have nothing but good times down there. It’s always a treat to come. Love the people, love the geography, great place for motorcycle trips, it’s close to our hearts.”
“If Trump is re-elected—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 context of the comments suggests it was not a sincere pledge.
In a 2015 Jimmy Kimmel Live! sketch, Jackson said “If that motherf***** becomes president I will move my black ass to South Africa,” referring to Trump.
However, addressing the sketch in 2016 on X (then Twitter), Jackson said he was staying.
“When you learn the difference between My Actual Opinion & A Kimmel Skit… Maybe we can talk. Till then, I’m Barbed Wire Up Your A****!!” he wrote.
The “Flowers” singer said in 2016 that she would leave the U.S. if Trump won. When he did, Cyrus did not leave and later walked back her comments.
Cyrus told NME in 2017: “I’m not f****** leaving the country, that’s some ignorant s***, that’s dumb.
“Because that’s me abandoning my country when I think I’ve got a good thing to say to my country.
“And trust me, I hear every day on my Instagram, ‘Just leave already! When are you going to leave?’ Well, that’s not going to be any good. Does it really matter where I am? Because wherever I am, my f****** voice is gonna be heard, and I’ll make sure of it.”
In Vanity Fair in 2019, she said: “You know, I said I would move away if he became president. We all said a bunch of s*** we didn’t mean.”
The actor told MailOnline in July 2024 that she was considering buying a house in Italy if Trump won.
“I am certainly considering a house in Italy. I think that’s an intelligent construct at this time.” she said
“This is one of the first times in my life that I’ve actually seen anyone running for office on a platform of hate and oppression.”
The Mötley Crüe drummer told U.K. magazine The Big Issue in 2020: “Dude, I swear to god if that happens then I’m coming over to visit the U.K. I’m out of here. I’ll go back to my motherland, go back to go Greece and get a house on one of the islands.
“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 f*** are you guys doing over there? Stop voting for celebrities and get someone real to run the country.'”
The Breaking Bad actor told The Bestseller Experiment podcast in 2016 that he would “definitely” move if Trump was elected president.
“It’s not real to me that that would happen. I hope to God it won’t,” he said.
Newsweek could not find any public statements from the remaining celebrities mentioned by Tate saying they would leave the U.S. if Trump was elected president.
Some have made statements that run close without outright saying it, or with important conditions.
For example, Stormy Daniels’ husband Barrett Blade told CNN in May 2024 that there was a “good chance” they would leave the country if Trump was acquitted in his Manhattan criminal trial, which he wasn’t.
Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong also said in 2022 that he was renouncing his citizenship following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a decision enabled by Trump packing the Court with conservative judges and which Trump has taken credit for.
“F*** America. I’m f*****g renouncing my citizenship. I’m f*****g coming here,” Armstrong told a London audience in June 2022.
“I have just had too much…stupid in the world to go back to that miserable f*****g excuse for a country.”
Politico reported in December 2023 that unnamed sources close to Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, heard that he was worried he may have to flee the country if Trump was elected president again. Newsweek could not find a public statement from Hunter Biden confirming this, and the claim does not amount to a pledge in the same manner.
Many of the names in the list such as Swift, Kelce, Hanks, Fonda, Penn, Soros, Fauci, and Eminem have been baselessly linked to a pledge before.