Thinking About Leaving The Country Until Trump & MAGA Disappear? You Sure Aren't The Only One

I had a wonderful adventure when I was in my twenties and it helped shape the rest of my life. Nixon had been narrowly elected president (with 43.4% of the vote having beaten Hubert Humphrey by a fraction of a point) and the U.S. was bombing Vietnam— and Cambodia— back into the Stone Age. I decided I just couldn’t keep living in the U.S. At 20, it isn’t that hard to pick up and move out… so I did. I started with a jaunt across Europe and Morocco, went to the Isle of Wight festival (Bob Dylan, The Who, The Band, the Moody Blues, Joe Cocker, Tom Paxton, Richie Havens…) and then set off for a 2 year drive to India, across, Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan— where I drove up into the mountains to look for the legendary Ali Brothers— India, Ceylon and Nepal… and back, where I settled first in Innsbruck (big mistake) and then Amsterdam. Eventually, I missed America, Nixon was being impeached and I decided to move home.

Now I’m 77 and last summer I visited Amsterdam to see my old friends; it was a miracle I could get there and back in one piece, and barely so. I fear what’s coming now in America. Trump is infinitely worse than Nixon. If I was 20, I’d already be living abroad. But I’m not going anywhere now. I was astounded to read in Nature yesterday, however, that as many as 75% of American scientists are considering moving abroad, at least for as long as the MAGA movement is threatening the U.S.

Alexandra Witze reported that the massive changes in US research brought about by Trump “are causing many scientists in the country to rethink their lives and careers. More than 1,200 scientists who responded to a Nature poll— three-quarters of the total respondents— are considering leaving the United States following the disruptions prompted by Trump. Europe and Canada were among the top choices for relocation.

Naturally, younger scientists just getting started in their careers are the ones most serious about relocating. Potentially, this is a disastrous development and a serious threat to America on multiple levels. The departure of thousands of scientists— particularly young, highly skilled researchers— would represent a catastrophic brain drain that weakens the country’s ability to innovate, compete globally, and respond to urgent challenges like climate change, public health crises and technological advancement. The US has long benefited from being a global hub for scientific research, attracting the brightest minds from around the world. If that changes— not just attracting talent but hemorrhaging scientific talent— the ripple effects will be felt for decades.

Beyond the immediate economic and technological consequences, this exodus reflects a deeper rot in American society— one driven by the MAGA movement’s ugly war on expertise, education and truth. The Republican Party, under Trump’s leadership, has embraced an anti-science, anti-intellectual agenda that threatens not just democracy but scientific progress itself. From climate denial to COVID disinformation to racism, xenophobia and book bans in schools, this movement thrives on ignorance and fear, pushing policies that drive away precisely the kind of people who make a country stronger.

The loss of scientific leadership will leave America increasingly isolated, as other nations step up to fill the void. Future breakthroughs in medicine, energy, and artificial intelligence will be happening elsewhere, with the U.S. falling behind as it descends into a reactionary, regressive state. And the worst part? This is exactly what the MAGA movement wants. They don’t just tolerate the exodus of scientists and intellectuals; they welcome it, because their vision for America doesn’t include critical thinking or progress. If this trend continues, the consequences will be irreversible, and the U.S. will become a nation defined by superstition, authoritarianism and decline.

Witze further reported that the Trump regime has already slashed research funding and halted broad swathes of federally funded science, under a Musk’s government-wide DOGE initiative. Tens of thousands of federal employees, including many scientists, have been fired (some precariously rehired following a court order), with threats of more mass firing to come. “Immigration crackdowns and battles over academic freedom have left researchers reeling as uncertainty and disruption permeate all aspects of the US research enterprise… Many respondents were looking to move to countries where they already had collaborators, friends, family or familiarity with the language.”

Some students are thinking in terms of getting out now and possibly coming back post-Trump “if the upheaval in the research landscape settles down.” Like I said, I came back to the U.S. to pursue a life and career post-Nixon, several of my old friends never did and are now Dutch.

One Nature respondent said “that the disruptions have been ‘particularly horrible’ for early-career scientists such as himself. ‘The PIs [principal investigators] I’ve spoken to feel they’ll be able to weather this storm,’ he says. ‘As early-career investigators, we don’t have that luxury— this is a critical moment in our careers, and it’s been thrown into turmoil in a matter of weeks.’ This researcher, who grew up in the United States and is a physician-scientist at a major US university, is now interviewing for jobs in Canada. The day his National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant was terminated, he e-mailed the department chair of colleagues at a Canadian university, who had been trying to entice him to take a position there. He and his wife, who is also a scientist, are now interviewing for jobs in the country, and hope to move by the end of the year. Institutions outside the United States are taking advantage of the Trump turmoil, the researcher says. 

[M]any of the 1,200-plus who said they are planning to leave highlighted the challenges they see ahead. “I am faculty and want to stay as long as I can [to] support my lab and students, but if the NIH is dramatically cut we may not have a choice to stay in the US,” one person wrote. Another respondent is actively applying only to positions in Europe: “I am transgender, and the 1–2 punch makes it improbable that the life I want to live is a viable option in this country.” (The Trump administration is attacking transgender rights through a variety of policies.)

One postgraduate researcher in a biomedical field summed up much of the thinking these days: “Don’t want to leave, but what’s the alternative?”

"Fanning the Flames" by Nancy Ohanian