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Comedian Bill Burr appeared to take aim at celebrities leaving the U.S. amid political unrest in a new interview.
Since Donald Trump’s second term as president began, a number of high-profile figures — such as Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O’Donnell, Courtney Love, Richard Gere and Eva Longoria — have made headlines for moving abroad. DeGeneres, O’Donnell and Love all specifically cited Trump’s election as an influence in their decisions.
Speaking to Rolling Stone while promoting his forthcoming appearance in Aaron Sorkin’s Facebook film The Social Reckoning, Burr was asked why he had gotten into flying helicopters as a hobby.
“I got into reading about the Federal Reserve, and I’m like, ‘The dollar could collapse at any moment. I live in L.A. I can barely get out of this city in two hours when it works. What happens when the shit hits the fan?’ Up and out was the easiest way,” he replied.
The interviewer then compared Burr’s helicopter to his version of a “mobile panic room.”
“The thing about a panic room is once you go in it, you can’t get the f*** out of there,” Burr responded. “The thing I like about a helicopter… I can put one gallon of fuel in there, maybe take off and fly the pattern. But I still have to come back. I have nowhere to go. There is nowhere to go. You should stay and fight. All these f***ing people moving to other countries. It’s just, like, that’s not what you do. You stay and fight.”
Burr’s comments come as a number of high-profile Americans have relocated overseas.
DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, moved to the U.K. in 2024, around the time of Trump’s election. “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.’ And we’re like, ‘We’re staying here,’” DeGeneres said last year.
Frequent Trump target O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her youngest child in January 2025, just days before Trump’s inauguration. “I miss many things about life there at home and I’m trying to find a home here in this beautiful country and when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America, that’s when we will consider coming back,” she said.
Love, meanwhile, has lived in England since 2019, but said she was in the process of getting her British citizenship last year due to the state of the U.S.
Other celebrities, including Gere and Longoria, have also established homes abroad in recent years, although their stated reasons for moving have not centered on Trump or politics.
