Like Luke Skywalker going into exile on Ahch-To, Mark Hamill nearly left the United States ahead of President Donald Trump’s second term.
The “Star Wars” actor, 73, revealed in an interview with The Times published Aug. 16 that he weighed moving out of the country after Trump’s 2024 election win.
Hamill said he told his wife after the election that she could choose whether they would move to London or Ireland. But ultimately, she talked him into staying.
“She’s very clever,” Hamill said. “She didn’t respond right away but a week later she said, ‘I’m surprised you would allow him to force you out of your own country.'”
After his wife’s comment, Hamill said he decided, “I’m not leaving.” He also told the outlet, “I still believe there are more honest, decent people than there are the MAGA crowd. If I didn’t, I’d move back to England.”
The “Life of Chuck” actor is a longtime critic of Trump who frequently speaks out against him on social media, and he backed former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race.
Days after former President Joe Biden ended his 2024 reelection bid, Hamill participated in a Zoom fundraising call for Harris dubbed “White Dudes for Harris,” during which he praised Biden for “the most legislatively successful administration since Franklin Delano Roosevelt” and urged voters to “stand up to (Trump’s) mental illness.”
After Trump defeated Harris in the presidential election, Hamill reacted with dismay on X, writing, “They say we get the leaders we deserve. Either that has just been disproven, or this is not the America we all thought we were living in.”
Jimmy Kimmel says he obtained citizenship in Italy amid Trump presidency
During his interview with The Times, Hamill slammed “the bullying” and “the incompetence” under Trump, adding that he deals with it “without going crazy” by imagining he is reading a political novel. “It’s entertaining in a way because this could actually be the end,” he said. “Our status in the world has been crippled and that will reverberate for decades.”
Hamill’s comments come after late-night host Jimmy Kimmel revealed on “The Sarah Silverman Podcast” that he has obtained Italian citizenship, a move he implied was motivated by Trump and the current political environment in the United States. “A lot of people I know are thinking about where they can get citizenship,” Silverman remarked on the podcast, while Kimmel said that Trump’s second term is “so much worse” than he expected.
Ellen DeGeneres confirms Trump provoked UK move: It’s ‘just better’
Though Hamill decided not to leave the United States, a few celebrities have pulled the trigger on a move. In July, former talk show host Ellen DeGeneres confirmed that Trump inspired her and her wife, Portia de Rossi, to relocate to the English countryside.
“We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, ‘(Trump) got in,'” the comedian said, according to the BBC and The Guardian. “And we’re like, ‘We’re staying here.'”
In March, comedian Rosie O’Donnell also said she left the United States and moved to Ireland, in what she described as the “safest and best thing for us to do.” She added that she is “sleeping better without the stress and anxiety over what was happening politically in the country.”
Trump later threatened to revoke O’Donnell’s U.S. citizenship, writing on Truth Social in July, “She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her.”
Contributing: Melina Khan and Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mark Hamill almost left the country after Trump election win
