(NewsNation) —  Since 2016, a lot of people, including many celebrities, have vowed to leave the U.S. if the presidential election didn’t go their way. Now in 2024, you can add another notable name to that list: former President Donald Trump.

“If something happens with this election, which would be a horror show, we’ll meet the next time in Venezuela,” Trump told Elon Musk during their X interview.

Jokingly or not, Trump joins a growing number of Americans who’ve not only said they would emigrate but are actively making plans to resettle overseas.

“Our members are finding the current climate, the uncertainty and the often-vitriolic nature of the political discourse, disturbing enough that it’s a motivating force for them to investigate their overseas options,” said Jennifer Stevens, executive editor of International Living, a website focusing on Americans who retire overseas.

According to the site’s recent survey of more than 2,700 readers, 65% said that the current political climate in the U.S. has prompted them to accelerate their timelines for moving to another country.

“They’re crafting a Plan B because they feel like they just might need it if things go sideways in November and beyond. They want to be ready,” Stevens said.

Who wants out?

The affluent, rich and seriously wealthy have historically led the way out of America. According to research by the global residence and citizenship consultancy Henley & Partners, 128,000 high-net-worth global citizens (those with $1 million of liquid investable assets) are expected to move to another country this year.

The firm also says that, in the past four years, inquiries from Americans seeking a second passport or alternative residence have skyrocketed by 504%. Citing civil and social unrest and political attacks on democracy, along with growing opportunities and lower taxes overseas, well-to-do Americans are opting for more welcoming places like Portugal, Malta, Spain, Greece and Italy, Henley said.

For the not-so-rich, leisure opportunities, better weather, a desire for a late-in-life adventure and a much lower cost of living have been, for decades, inspired Americans to relocate.

For whatever reason, the number of Americans who say they would like to move to another country has dramatically increased. Fifty years ago, just 10% of those asked said they would move overseas. Today, according to Monmouth University, it’s 34%.

Broken down by politics, 41% of independents say they want to resettle in another country, compared with 35% of Democrats and 22% of Republicans. Fifty years ago, 13% of independents wanted to leave, along with 10% of Democrats and 9% of Republicans.

Political asylum

We typically hear the term “political asylum” and assume it’s people from other countries seeking protection in the U.S. from persecution in their homelands. But there are Americans who apply for political asylum to other countries.

“Many (asylum) applicants genuinely believe that the United States is simply not a safe place for their families to live and have made the choice to flee the proverbial land of the free,” said Jayesh Rathod, director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic at American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C.

“U.S. citizenship is perhaps the most coveted status in the world, but its limitations and fragility, as evidenced by flight from the land of the free, merit careful and ongoing attention,” he said.

Data from the United Nations High Command for Refugees showed that, in 2022 and 2023, it processed more than 1,000 asylum claims from Americans in each of those years.

Where to go?

Leaving America to find political asylum dates to before there was a United States of America. Those loyal to Great Britain fled to Canada as the revolution approached. Before and during the Civil War, Canada received African American slaves who came north via the Underground Railroad.

More recently, Canada accepted about 50,000 young American men in the 1960s and ’70s who fled the U.S. military draft and possible service in Vietnam.

The U.K., Sweden, Mexico and Australia have also granted political asylum claims by Americans. Other countries more hostile to the U.S., like Russia and China, have also done so.

Since 1950, Israel’s Law of Return has allowed any Jew, their children, grandchildren and their spouses to move to Israel and become citizens. The law also applies to those who convert to Judaism.

The law has been slightly adjusted over the years, and there has been controversy centered on “who is a Jew,” the disagreements between whom the Israeli government and various religious factions consider to be “Jewish.”

An avenue for American Jews of German descent has been German citizenship. Since 1949, Germany has offered citizenship to Jews who were Holocaust survivors or expelled during the Nazi regime for being Jewish. The offer extends to qualifying descendants, as well.

“Having a German passport is incredibly reassuring should safe harbor be needed,” said Francis Howell, a retired journalist living in Washington state.

“Politics here are growing increasingly ugly and scary. I hope it never happens but if we had to escape we have passports to get us out, and countries to let us in. The value of having sanctuary can’t be overstated!” she added.

Then what?

International Living surveyed some of its readers about how they’re faring since leaving the U.S.

“I wanted to live in a place where people are more accepting and enjoy life,” said Jeffrey Clawson, a former Episcopal priest from Los Angeles who now lives in Madrid, Spain.

“If you are happy and enjoying life, you don’t have a place for a lot of anger and cruelty. I want to live in a place where people are happy. I find Spaniards to be very happy people,” he said.

“In the place where I lived in the US, I always felt like I had to look over my shoulders, and I was always afraid to go out after dark,” said Arianna Briscoe, who moved to the Charente region of France with her husband. She says she feels much safer in her new home.