Maia Pak
SPAIN has become a refuge for some US citizens seeking to escape President Trump’s ‘authoritarian takeover.’
Many families who have now settled in Spain have no intention of returning to the US, with some even calling their country a ‘source of shame.’
“When Trump won, I knew we had to escape. Family and friends thought we were exaggerating. Now they call me for advice. History teaches us that the first to leave seem crazy, but the last ones don’t,” Benjamin Gorman told El Pais.
Gorman, an American writer and high school teacher, now lives in an apartment in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter with his partner, child and five pets.
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The family received death threats from Trump supporters over disapproval of Gorman’s teaching of US history. Additionally, their child, Frankie, who is transgender and nonbinary would have had their passport invalidated, had they waited longer to leave the US.
Another US family, Californian Chris Kelly and her 17-year-old mixed race daughter decided to leave after her daughter expressed that she ‘noticed a lot of racism.’
Kelly said her daughter told her ‘if Trump won again, she wouldn’t want to be there anymore.’ Since Spain allowed for visas to be obtained quickly, as compared to the Kellys’ other option, Portugal, the family left their home in San Diego and are currently residing in the Eixample district.
“We’re not going back to the US. The country is deeply divided, and that’s not going to be fixed with a new president. The damage Trump has done will last at least a generation,” Kelly said to El Pais.
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Leia Anderson, a transgender and nonbinary parent of two, told El Pais that Trump’s administration ‘has made it clear that he doesn’t want trans people to exist. The anti-trans rhetoric is so violent that I don’t feel safe anymore.’
Along with their partner, Nathan, and children aged six and ten, Anderson plans to move to Barcelona in October, stating that the city has been ‘very welcoming.’
The Andersons have hired an immigration lawyer to help process their visas. “We’re going to Barcelona with the intention of making it permanent. We want a safe place for our family.” Anderson said.
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Not all Americans moving to Spain think like the very few you have profiled.
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This article in El Pais drips with hyperbolic fear-mongering, painting Trump as some cartoonish dictator while ignoring the robust checks and balances that keep American democracy humming along. Let’s unpack this nonsense expose the irony at play.
First, the claim of an “authoritarian takeover” is laughable leftist hysteria. Trump won a free and fair election in 2024—hardly the mark of a crumbling democracy. Critics scream about assaults on institutions, but as even some balanced analyses note, while there are concerns over executive overreach (like military deployments in DC or National Guard disputes), these haven’t derailed the system; courts and Congress are pushing back effectively, preventing any true consolidation of authoritarian rule. Scholars are divided, with many dismissing the autocracy panic as overblown—after all, if the U.S. were truly sliding into dictatorship, these expats wouldn’t be able to jet off so easily with their passports intact. The fact that people can publicly bash the president, pack their bags, and leave without repercussions proves the “threat” is more media-fueled paranoia than reality.
Take Benjamin Gorman’s story: Death threats from random supporters? Deplorable, sure, but pinning that on Trump is a stretch—it’s not like the guy’s policies mandate harassment. And the transgender passport fear? The administration did try to limit gender markers to biological sex in early 2025, but federal courts swiftly blocked it nationwide in June, granting relief to trans and nonbinary applicants and allowing ‘X’ options to continue. That’s the judiciary doing its job, not some unstoppable authoritarian steamroller. If anything, it shows democracy’s safeguards are working just fine.
Chris Kelly’s tale of fleeing “racism” her daughter noticed? Anecdotal at best, and conveniently vague. The U.S. has divisions, no doubt, but equating a Trump win with rampant, inescapable bigotry ignores progress and the fact that millions of minorities voted for him. It’s the kind of selective outrage that fuels division rather than fixes it.
Leia Anderson’s worries about anti-trans rhetoric? Valid concerns in a heated cultural debate, but again, no evidence of Trump erasing trans existence wholesale. Policies are contested in courts and legislatures—that’s democracy, not dictatorship. If Spain feels safer, great, but Barcelona’s “welcoming” vibe might sour when locals grapple with the housing crunch these expats exacerbate.
Now, the irony: These folks are fleeing a Trump they claim embodies hate, yet their own liberal ideology—pushing extreme identity politics, DEI mandates, and “woke” overreach—sparked the massive backlash that got Trump elected in the first place. Voters rebelled against patrician-class hijacking of progressive causes, alienating working-class Americans with endless lectures on gender, race, etc. while ignoring economic pains. Trump’s wins in 2016 and 2024 were direct repudiations of that elitist drift, with gains among Latinos, Blacks, and young voters who felt sidelined by the left’s cultural obsessions.
And here’s the kicker: They’re exporting that same divisive ideology to Spain, where anti-tourism protests are exploding over skyrocketing rents and overtourism driven by wealthy foreigners like them. Locals in Barcelona and beyond are fed up with “tourism-phobia,” blaming expats for pricing them out of homes and turning neighborhoods into Airbnb havens. As one X user noted, immigrants and expats fleeing regimes are watching Spain morph into the mess they escaped, thanks to these ideological imports. Spain’s far-right Vox party is rising on similar backlashes—sound familiar? These “refugees” might soon find their new paradise rejecting the very views that birthed Trump.
Bottom line: If the U.S. is such a “source of shame,” stay gone. But don’t pretend you’re victims of fascism when you’re just sore losers in a democracy that rejected your worldview. Spain deserves better than becoming your echo chamber abroad.
Poltroon
Obviously a Republican,and like so many of the others in the same camp, short sighted and completely oblivious to reality.
Wow! Obviously a Trump supporter. They are oblivious to reality. We saw the writing on the wall and moved 5 years ago. We love Spain ?? ?? .
Very well put!! Spot on. I notice the left can’t handle this truth…..
Trump is an egomaniac who views himself as the next Putin or Hitler. Our country made a grave mistake electing him the first time and an unbelievably dangerous mistake reelecting him. My wife and I moved to Spain to escape him. I hope he dies soon from too many Big Macs, since that is the surest way of protecting our country against his future tyranny. God help our country!
Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. These “Americans” do not represent the majority of us. These people are the same ones who want to defund the police and support Hezbollah while waving a LGBTQ+ flag. As a Jew married to a mixed-race woman and living in both Florida and Marbella, I can say that Floridians have more freedoms than the average Spanish citizen.
We escaped Florida 2 years ago. Are the freedoms you are referring to school shooter drills, possibility of guns in every car you pass on the street, government in control of your health care in stead of your doctor and high quality affordable food? Just asking.
Spain has better health care, safer parks, the locals are very welcoming and I have never been concerned about being shot while shopping for groceries.
I don’t know what it’s like to be from a persecuted group in the USA, but it sounds fearful and awful. We moved to Costa del Sol from California because we like the Spanish lifestyle and the quality of life we enjoy here. Most Californians are warm and gracious to all, just like we’ve experienced here in Spain. We didn’t leave because of the political climate, but we’re glad to be here.
Why didn’t you interview at least one of us who 100% support what Trump is doing and have moved to Spain for other reasons? What a horrible one-sided story!!
No, I assure you trump is every bit as bad as they say and demented and a malignant narcissist. It’s only getting worse for Americans from here on. Thankfully I’ve become a Resident of UK 12 years ago and have a house outside Seville as well. Rich? No, but happy to be in saner countries just now. Not everyone can or should leave. But I understand wanting to.
Attila is: Another Trump MAGA puppet trying to defend the extreme fascist takeover of the U.S. Blind to facts.
A more accurate description would be “Communist and other Far-Left Americans seek refuge in Communist, far-left Migrant-Overrun Spain to avoid Donald Trump’s tax-cuts and reforms to the disastrous and corrupt policies of the Biden Administration.”
Calling the kettle black?
Thanks for sharing this important American perspective here in the Olive Press. There is a fast growing American immigrant community in Spain and all of Europe now, and many will be highly skilled individuals, business owners, professors and retirees with a progressive bent. Many are former government and military who have the means to retire abroad. Some of us studied here and Spain has been a lifelong dream. But sure, you’re occasionally going to get the right wing Trumpers who support the Vox party line like the person posting here; people that want to rail against democratic socialism while benefiting from it. ? That said I hope even we can agree that a weak dollar caused by Trump’s baloney doesn’t suit any of us living in Europe.
I’d like to think most of us will do a good job assimilating. We have a strong foreign language tradition even in our public schools, and Spanish is widely taught. We also have an innate curiosity and if we are from metropolitan areas, a commitment to living in ethnically diverse communities and contributing to the places in which we live. If we can’t work, we can volunteer and find ways to enmesh in our Spanish communities.
I am hopeful my countrymen make for good neighbors and friends and are a net positive to Spain in the long term.
I, too, would not live in the US, and am happy to have residency in Spain. I know many people who no longer feel safe in the US, and after yesterday’s stunts by trump, there will be more.
Russell W…
Muchas gracias a las cuatro personas que respondjeron a este article. I am an American citizen living in Spain since 2016. Unlike the people in the article, I left America after casting my vote for President Trump because we thought living under the regime of Hillary Clinton would be intolerable. Here we are nine years later and because of President Trump and his national intelligence team, the truth of the Obama/Biden years is coming out and Hillary’s role is being exposed. The wheels of justice in America turn slowly, but at least they turn.