Many celebrities and other high-profile figures have said they will move out of the country if President Trump is elected, but one Maryland couple is doing just that.
Jeff Yeager, a self-employed writer, and his wife are spending the year traveling the globe in search of a new home where they will live for the next four, maybe eight, years.
Yeager tells the Washington Post he’s “Trumping out” for the next few years around the world.
“When the devastation of the election hit,” he says, “we thought, ‘Let’s just leave and travel, travel, travel and see where it takes us.’ “
Many countries welcome American visitors and their money, but they are less enthusiastic about Americans taking away jobs from citizens.
“It seems very sexy to move to Canada these days,” says immigration lawyer Elizabeth Wozniak of Halifax, Nova Scotia. “What’s not sexy is the amount of paper involved. We have a ridiculous amount of bureaucracy.”
But that isn’t stopping the Yeagers, who have no children, no mortgage, and live cheaply on less than $40,000 a year.
Yeager’s wife, Denise, is retired and collects social security and a small pension while Jeff can work anywhere as a self-employed writer.
Yeager, who calls himself the “Ultimate Cheapskate,” has been on the Today show 20 times and has written four books on being thrifty, but he is also a die-hard liberal.
“I’m committed to being out of the country for just as long as we can,” says Yeager. “What we’re trying to escape is the disappointment of my homeland.” But he adds that the couple will not give up their U.S. citizenship.
The Yeagers have already spent a month in Ireland after the election and plan to go to Panama, Costa Rica, Spain, Portugal, New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Croatia, and Poland.
The couple is looking at countries that offer good health care, affordable housing, friendly people, and have limited paperwork for immigration.
“I’ve never felt this strongly, not even with Nixon,” Yeager says, who adds that the couple sees themselves as “citizen ambassadors” who represent anti-Trump America.