The Great Donald Dash

After Trump’s re-election, Democrats are fleeing America for more liberal destinations — and London is high on the list

- CHARLOTTE DUCK

Erin Lytwyn and her husband, Daniel, had planned to leave London and move back to the United States after welcoming their daughter, Charlotte, 10 months ago. “We were approved in the US to buy a house and get a mortgage,” she says. But when Donald Trump was re-elected in November last year the couple, who are 36 and 34, changed their minds and bought a house in Camden instead.

“Trump started making several scary moves, like the people he’s appointed, and it made us think about what was important for us,” says Lytwyn, who works in cloud sales for Google and has lived in London for just over two years. She finds Trump’s policies on deportation and immigration particularly objectionable. “Daniel is from Colorado, which has a deeply rooted relationship with Mexico and El Salvador,” she says. “Trump is saying he’s going to deport millions of people on his first day in office — it’s hard living in a country where people have lived for 30 years and might be removed.” While Lytwyn knows immigration is an issue in the UK, she says “there’s not the same level of racism. It’s a more balanced and equal culture”.

The family are part of a growing cohort of Trump “refugees” — Democratic Americans fleeing to more liberal countries to wait out the new president’s second term. They include a host of celebrities: Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have moved to the Cotswolds; America Ferrera is rumoured to be looking at schools in south-west London; Eva Longoria has swapped California for Spain and Mexico, and Sharon Stone is eyeing up Italy. British star Sophie Turner has also returned to the UK after making America her long-term home.

The data backs up this shift across the Atlantic. Google searches in the US for “moving abroad” and “how to emigrate” hit record highs last year, while the UK-based Immigration Advice Service reported a 500 per cent surge in US traffic to its website.