It’s the ultimate virtue signal, and that’s saying something by Hollywood standards.
If Donald Trump wins on Election Day I’m leaving the country! That was the 2016 rally cry echoed by stars like Samuel L. Jackson, Cher, Amy Schumer, Lena Dunham, Whoopi Goldberg, Miley Cyrus and Snoop Dogg just before Trump’s improbable first term.
Spoiler alert. They stayed put. Or, as Schumer inelegantly put it, “just kidding!”
It quickly became a way to mock Celebrity Nation. Oh, you’re leaving if your preferred candidate doesn’t win on Election Day? Don’t let the door hit you where the Good Lord split you!
Mockery aside, the notion of a second Trump term coaxed some stars to make very similar complaints. The stars apparently either didn’t hear the ribbing that ensued the first time around or they didn’t care. Emotions run hot in Hollywood, so the latest election cycle found more celebrities vowing to flee should Kamala Harris’ word salad campaign fail to launch.
Oscar-nominee Sharon Stone teased a hasty retreat prior to Election Day. She told The Daily Mail in July she was planning a possible exit in a worst-case scenario.
“I am certainly considering a house in Italy…I think that’s an intelligent construct at this time. 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.”
We haven’t heard an update on her plans as of yet.
VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images
Barbra Streisand hedged her bets when she shared her post-election plans with “The Late Show” on CBS. She told far-Left host Stephen Colbert that she couldn’t keep living in America under a second Trump term, eyeing England as a possible destination.
We’re waiting for the moving trucks to circle her palatial estate.
Last year, Cher said this time she was seriously about leaving the USA should Trump defeat then-candidate President Joe Biden.
“I almost got an ulcer the last time. If he gets in, who knows? This time I will leave [the country].”
He’s in. Again. We’ll have to wait and see if Cher’s word is her bond.
Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM
The second round of, “I’m leaving the country if Trump wins (again)” is less boisterous than the first. Plus, a tiny number of stars actually followed up on their pledge.
Sort of. To be fair, it’s … complicated.
Ellen DeGeneres, whose behind-the-scenes cruelty crushed her once-popular TV talk show, followed up on the generic, I’m gonna leave threat. She and her wife, “Arrested Development” alum Portia de Rossi, are moving to England.
They’ve sold their Montecito, California, home, a decision allegedly fueled by Trump’s victory. It’s ironic for a comedian to choose England, a nation where free speech has come under serious attack while President Elect-Trump vows to crush the Deep State’s censorship players.
Priorities.
Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for RH
The press insinuated “Desperate Housewives” alum Eva Longoria also pulled up her stakes and moved following Trump’s victory. She could have leaned into the false narrative, gaining hipster points within her Hollywood community.
Longoria, to her credit, shared the real story behind her move.
“I’ve been in Europe for almost three years… By the way, the article says that. People just grabbed some clickbait stuff to be divisive, which makes me so sad. Everything you say is just meant to be divisive when we can’t be that way right now.”
She also flew back to California in recent days for an industry party.
Ironically, Longoria blasted California’s homeless issues and high taxes as key reasons for her initial departure. Both fall heavily on the state’s one-party rule, not any Trump decisions.
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Some stars are making good on their plans to leave, but it doesn’t mean their nation of origin. They’re fleeing X, the Elon Musk platform which embraced free speech in recent years. It’s far easier to switch to a competing, albeit infinitely smaller, platform than actually selling one’s home and giving up what America offers the very rich and famous.
That ex-X list includes Stephen King, Bette Midler, Rob Reiner, Jamie Lee Curtis, Matthew Lillard, Alyssa Milano, Mark Hamill and Gabrielle Union. More may follow, including far-Left journalists like Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post fame.
FilmMagic/FilmMagic for HBO
Most have settled into Bluesky, a newer platform that offers an X-like experience.
That transition has been far from smooth.
They, too, may eventually come back to the platform formally known as Twitter. Stars often threaten to leave or quit the social media giant before coming back sooner or later. Alec Baldwin is a classic example.
Newer platforms like Threads, dubbed the Twitter killer in its early days, haven’t caught up with Musk’s digital baby. That’s being kind.
Then again, leaving X wasn’t healing enough for actor/auteur Rob Reiner. The “Misery” director left X, joined Bluesky but says he’s still so crushed by Trump’s victory that he’s checked into a “facility” for his mental health.
The actor formerly known as Meathead may have found the smartest way to process Trump 2.0 for Hollywood progressives.
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Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at HollywoodInToto.com.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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