Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson, writing for The Wall Street Journal:

The U.S. experienced net negative migration—an estimated loss of some 150,000 people—in 2025, and the outflow will likely increase in 2026, according to calculations by the Brookings Institution, a public-policy think tank. The number could be larger or smaller because official U.S. data doesn’t yet fully capture the number of people leaving, Brookings analysts noted. The total in-migration was between around 2.6 and 2.7 million in 2025, down from a peak of almost 6 million in 2023.

Trump is part of the why, but that’s not the full story:

Do these émigrés personify a loss of faith in America’s future and way of life? Across dozens of interviews, U.S. expats described their motivations as a tangle of economic incentives, lifestyle preferences and disenchantment with the trajectory of America, citing violent crime, cost of living and turbulent politics. Trump’s re-election was a factor for many—although others voted for him. But the structural and societal shift runs much deeper. When Gallup asked Americans during the 2008 recession how many wanted to leave the U.S., the answer was one in 10. Last year: One in five.

“It undercuts this American exceptionalism, ‘we have the best quality of life, we’re the best country in the world, everyone wants to move here,’” said Caitlin Joyce, one of two researchers at Temple University who have spent years studying the trend. “Well, Americans move abroad and find they like life better abroad. They like the social democratic policies.”