U.S. election: Four American expats weigh in on their concerns, fears and hopes for Tuesday

Fellow American expat Tom Leitner, left, and I discussing the U.S. election at Rome's Ristorante Broccoletti Wednesday night.
Fellow American expat Tom Leitner, left, and I discussing the U.S. election at Rome’s Ristorante Broccoletti Wednesday night.

One candidate served in the White House for the last four years and offered plans of giving breaks to first-time home buyers and making the price gouging I recently experienced illegal. The other is a convicted felon who talks about Haitians eating pets, mass deportation of immigrants and a retribution tour that would embarrass a third world dictator.

Yet the polls are so close between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump that I wonder what Trump must do or say to give Harris an edge. 

Tuesday’s presidential election is billed as the most important in United States history. Only on the line is the fate of democracy. As American expats, we are thankfully not subjected to the blanket campaign TV ads filled with lies and half truths. 

However, we still suffer from the same stress in this election as our fellow Americans in the U.S. We expats are tethered to our past, however much we try to distance ourselves through full immersion into our new cultures. 

If Trump wins, how will he affect our lives? Will he prevent us from returning? Will he force us home? It seems infeasible but this is the same man who vows to put his political opponents in jail. 

What would he do to an American travel writer in Rome?

We American expats are spread all over the world but we’re a tight knit group, particularly in an election year. This week, I contacted four of my friends and asked them all the same questions. They live in Zurich and Helsinki and Phnom Penh and Rome. And most share the same emotion.

Terror.

Below are excerpts from our conversations, edited for brevity. The participants were Tom Leitner, 59, an English teacher in Rome from Cupertino, Calif.; Michael Hunt, 67, a freelance journalist in Helsinki from Taylors, S.C., Loren De Feo, 45, a teacher in Kloten outside Zurich from Smithtown, N.Y., and John Gottberg Anderson, 74, a freelance journalist in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from my hometown of Eugene, Ore. Why didn’t I interview a Trump supporter?

I don’t know any. They don’t leave America.

Due to my occasional work with a publication that frowns on its reporters giving extreme opinions, I’m staying out of it. I already voted. You can figure out for whom.

Loren De Feo in Switzerland.

Me: As the U.S. election nears, what is your overriding emotion?

Loren: I’m terrified, to be honest. At first the polls looked like it’s going to be in Harris’ favor. I still think she’s going to win the popular vote. But it’s surprisingly too close. And with all the bigotry and misogyny and racism and all this shit going down, especially recently in Madison Square Garden, it’s just extremely alarming. I’m scared. We have learned from the whole Hillary (Clinton) situation, right? We were so sure Hillary Clinton was going to win. Then it was such a shock when she didn’t win because we have this outdated Electoral College system. It’s so terrifying. 

John: Part of me wants to say I’m terrified by the idea of a new Trump presidency. At the same time I would say, if that’s what happens, the stupid, fucking Americans will get what they deserve. If 50 percent or 48 percent of the country wants to support this fool, I think they deserve it. And I feel sorry for the American people if that happens. I’ve followed Trump’s statements for so long. Hopefully this latest one just a couple days ago about the Puerto Ricans will finally burn him. (Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe during Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally Tuesday called Puerto Rico “an island of garbage.”) The level of racism, which manifests in so many different ways, I find very, very disturbing.

Michael: It’s concern. The polls are tight. My only point of reference being over here is the Finns I talk to and their thought that they just can’t understand how a guy who’d be under psychiatric evaluation here or in most other countries could be in position to win an election that could have a catastrophic effect on the rest of the planet. Now I feel fairly confident that Harris is going to win. But I would not rule out Trump winning at all. It’s concerning, especially for the part of the world that I live in.

Tom: My biggest thought is hope. I’m a positive person. I’m hopeful what’s going to happen is she’ll find a way to win and suddenly, boom! The nightmare will be over. If he loses this one, he’s not like Jason on Friday the 13th. He’s not coming back to life. This could be a really wonderful thing that will happen so why be afraid when you can’t change it anyway? Why not be hopeful and if it does go the right way, be ready to party?

Tom Leitner in Rome.

Me: Did you vote for Harris or against Trump?

Tom: A bit of both. If the Republicans had a viable candidate I still probably would’ve voted for Kamala. Considering it’s the worst possible candidate they could’ve come up with, it’s pretty much a no brainer. It wasn’t really going to matter. I was going to vote for her. I like the fact that she has a brain. She’s an adult. She’s articulate. She’s strong. It doesn’t matter if she’s a man, woman, Black or White. She is a strong, able-bodied person who can make good decisions, accounting for everyone and not just her close friends.

Michael: That’s a good question. It’s the same question I posed to myself in 2020. I’m primarily voting against Trump. Job One, as it was in 2020, is to make sure that an autocratic fascist does not win and get control of my homeland. Then I’d want to see if Harris can do the job. I think she can. I have confidence in her.

John: I voted for Harris. I have a lot of respect for her. I think she’ll do a fine job. No. 1, how could she be responsible for inflation? That’s 100 percent absurd. As far as immigration, no, she’s not responsible for immigration. It was there during Trump’s era four years ago. It was already an issue then. That’s why he talked about building a wall. If it was as issue then and an issue now, he just wants to wash his hands of it. What we’re talking priimarily about immigration, is immigration from Mexico, which includes Central Americans and other Latin American countries. What they need to take a close look at is, if they really stopped the flow of immigrants from Latin America, how is that going to affect the agriculture industry in North America? And what they said about the Mexicans, that they were all drug addicts and rapists? How can you make that statement? I have some very good friends who are 100 percent Mexican in the States. They are not drug addicts and rapists.

 

Michel Hunt and his girlfriend, Nina, in Finland.

Me: What has been your reaction to some of Trump’s recent statements and his speakers’ comments at Madison Square Garden?

Michael: He’s disturbed. He’s a mentally disturbed, dangerous individual. I would not want to live in a U.S. if (there is) Project 2025. I’ve read it and it’s dystopian. Trump just seems to me like a useful idiot. All these people want to control the U.S., with an authoritarian, theocratic society with Project 2025. I fear he’s a useful idiot for (Vladimir) Putin, too. It’s quite dangerous. He’s unhinged. He’s not stable. All the plans he has for the U.S., these crazy tariffs, deporting people by the millions, it goes against any part of humanity. It just doesn’t fit in. He doesn’t have any empathy. He doesn’t care about the arts. He doesn’t care about culture. He doesn’t care about democracy. He doesn’t care about freedom. He’s in it for himself. And he’s in it to stay out of jail. That’s the only thing he cares about in this election. 

Tom: It doesn’t surprise me. He’s trying to get attention. He’s trying to get headlines. He’s trying to get the other candidate to talk about him. And it’s working. To a certain degree, any publicity is good publicity. This is what he did to win the last time. Every single day, some tweet, negative, positive, whatever, he’s what’s everyone is talking about. 

John: I wonder how these comments about the Puerto Ricans are going to affect (the Hispanic vote). He didn’t say it but he didn’t repudiate it at all. He’s making up stories about Haitian immigrants. Come on, man. The Haitians have enough problems. They’re trying to survive a murderous rebellion in their own country. 

John Gottberg Anderson in Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

Me: Looking at the political landscape in the U.S., how thankful are you that you live abroad?

John: Where I’m living now there are issues as well. As a journalist, what I find both in Vietnam, where I was living before, and Cambodia, where I’ve lived for the last year and a half, the idea of press freedom and freedom of speech is very, very different than what I’ve been used to in the States. I fear that if Trump would get his way, he’d want to reduce that freedom in the United States closer to what goes on here in these authoritarian countries. But yes, I would not want to live in a country which wants to restrict freedoms on the level that the Trump Administration wants to do. 

Michael: Yeah, I’m grateful for that if Trump’s in office. I could take the attitude, screw it. I’ve got 7,500 kilometers between me and my homeland. It won’t affect me. But I’d be lying to myself. It would bother me every day. I have friends, I have family who could possibly be affected by an authoritarian regime. But on the other hand I’d be incredibly grateful for the chance to be away from it. I’m appreciative of where I live. I’m an American. I understand how my country works. I appreciate a lot of things about it. But I’m pretty much 180 from the American culture here and it suits my personality better than it does in the U.S. I would still be concerned about a lot of things. There would be a lot of unease if Trump pulls out of NATO which a lot of people think that he will. That kind of election would cast an incredible pall over the entire planet, especially in this part of the planet. I would be happy to be away from the division, from the fighting, from the possible riots that may occur. I don’t want any part of that. I live in a very peaceful, quiet, thoughtful, well-educated place. Not to say the U.S. doesn’t have some of those qualities. But I’m just much happier over here. I’m lucky because Finland has given me a great gift. It’s given me peace of mind.

Loren: I’m very happy that I’m living in Europe for personal reasons. My family is here. Most of my friends are here. I have a very good life in Switzerland because Switzerland has a very high standard of living. We have a social system that functions and works. People are cared for. You’re not going to see anyone homeless unless they want to be homeless. So we have a very good quality of life. But when people are living in their fishbowl – and I look at America like it’s a fishbowl – I look at us as outsiders looking in. They don’t know any different. They’re not aware of how other countries live or how things could be different. I have been back to the States last year and I was shocked at how expensive it has become because of inflation. But this is not just an American problem. It’s a worldwide phenomenon since the pandemic. 

Tom: If he wins, it’s just another day. We still have a Constitution. We still have a Senate and a House. We still have a military. We still have the checks and balances in place. We have allies. He can only do so much damage. If he wins, we’ll find some way to get through it again. We survived it once along with a pandemic. We could survive him again.

Me: From your gut – not your heart – who do you think will win?

Tom: I think she’s going to pull it off. It’s just a gut feeling. All the signs are running that it’s going to be so close that no one is really going to honestly tell. But honestly, I think there has been so much attention about how much momentum he’s getting, how close he’s getting, often when everyone jumps on a bandwagon, they often forget. They go, Oh, yeah. This is what’s happening. They don’t see the whole story. The more momentum he gets the more people who are against him are going to fight to vote. If Kamala had a nice comfortable lead that was getting bigger, a lot of people would stay home and go, Hey, she’s going to win. Now everyone knows it could come down to a few votes in one state. So that helps the Democrats.

Michael: My mind tells me Harris is going to win. But I was sitting in the South Bronx in 2016. I remember going down to the courthouse thinking this is going to be a slam dunk. Hillary is going to win. It was a sick feeling later on that night. I can’t get that out of my head. If I’m reading all the trends, all the polls, what tells me most is a big early turnout pretty much guarantees a Democratic win. A low turnout guarantees a GOP win. I really think Harris is going to win from my head and my heart, but I would not be surprised if Trump wins. 

John: I’m going with Harris. Because I think Trump is just fucking himself up at the deadline with too many foolish things. Some people are going to shake their heads and say, You can’t do that.

Loren: I think he’s going to win. I don’t want to say it. I hope I’m wrong. I read all the statistics and polls going back a month. I think right now it’s too close. I think there are so many brainwashed in the Bible Belt, but not only the Bible Belt but all of these idiots who don’t know better. Also these misogynists. Also what’s alarming is all these young people, these young Latinos especially, are voting for Trump. They’re mostly male. Lots of the male demographic is voting for Trump. That showcases the misogyny. I am bracing for impact. I am not, like, a religious person but I actually did pray yesterday. I don’t think I have prayed in years. I did pray that, please, if there is a God out there, please let this election go the way that it should. That we should have a democracy again. I am terrified.