Thousands quit Trump's USA in hope of a better life in Scotland

Published: 19:49, 16 August 2026 | Updated: 19:50, 16 August 2026 Donald Trump may have pledged to make America great again, but record numbers of young Americans are voting with their feet and choosing Scotland over the US. Applications for British citizenship by US residents reached a record of 9,300 last year, more than double the equivalent figure for 2022 when Joe Biden was in the White House. And a survey, by property technology firm Goodlord, has found that a disproportionate number of the newcomers shunning Trump’s America are settling in the homeland of his own Scots mother, Mary Anne MacLeod. The study, reported in The Sunday Times, found a 63 per cent rise in the number of Americans renting in Scotland since Trump was re-elected, from 265 to 431. Goodlord analysed more than 300,000 tenancy agreements signed in the past two years and compared them with 2023 and 2024, when the Democrats were in power. It found the average age of US renters in Scotland was 27, pointing towards young professionals being the keenest to move there. Since Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office applications for British citizenship by US residents have shot up ‘These figures give further weight to claims that volatility in US politics is driving many Americans to seek a new home in the UK,’ William Reeve, Goodlord’s chief executive officer, told the paper. Across the UK, numbers were up 32 per cent, from 3,733 to 4,939. Goodlord found that the average monthly rent paid by US citizens living in Scotland is £1,711 per month, compared with £3,756 per month in Manhattan and £3,345 in San Francisco. Beth Knight, an artist and stand-up comedian from Oklahoma, left America after President Trump was elected and now lives in Glasgow. Ms Knight, 41, who has been performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, said: ‘Glasgow is a really creative, welcoming and liberal place.’ She added: ‘I really appreciate the NHS, the social security safety net and the way that Scotland takes care of people.’ Christine Jardine, Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, is urging the UK government to offer fast-track visas to American workers. She said: ‘I have been inundated with messages from those in America who no longer wished to live under a Trump Presidency. ‘Why not offer sanctuary to those who want to flee, if they can make our country a better, more prosperous place for our people in the process?’