Summer holiday to US ?

[Lochalvie]

Just wondering what people’s thoughts are on going to USA this summer? Would current political situation put you off ?

@Artid It’s up to you and most business needs support! I would not go where you do. Plus if you really think this will change in a few years, you could be very very wrong. What might another Republican president do for 8 more years? I’d wake up to that possibility. You might also need to remember that other countries persecute people and the police have shot innocent people here.

I love going to the US. But it’s on my no fly list till we are post Trump.

im not scared. I’m disgusted.

TBH unless there's a vital family/business reason, anyone to goes to the US for pleasure now is upholding the regime of the Marmalade Moron, and is a culpable MAGA/ICE supporter.

Why do you think going to the USA is supporting Trump? Very odd. Do you think visiting any country is supporting their elected leader? Notice the word elected. I bet many travel to countries with no free and fair elections and you have no idea what’s going on because it’s not publicised! It’s jumping on a bandwagon.

I'm not "trilling" whatever that is.

I am currently making deliberate choices not to support the US since I believe strongly that we need to be less reliant on them. The current regime is dangerous and out of control.

I no longer use amazon, I am not allowed to use facebook or instagram anyway due to my job, I don't use google instead I use ecosia. I don't buy mcdonalds or starbucks or proctor and gamble etc. I've changed my investment portfolio and in particular I've sold all of my US bonds. I don't drive a US manufactured car.

There are lots and lots of people boycotting the US and their products.

We are going in the summer but I’m keeping an eye on it all if things get bad then hopefully holiday will be cancelled or we can move it to next year perhaps.
If America is no go will increase the amount of time we are in Canada instead beforehand.

Trump likes to shout about how everything is wonderful and great and improving under his leadership. It isn't and eventually those who believe his lies will see that. Partly because people around the world are boycotting US goods and services, selling their US bonds and changing their travel plans.

He was voted in (allegedly). Unless the country starts to appreciate the negative effect of that then they won't vote for change. Many, many Americans would ask you not to go too, even if that means economic pain for them in the short term

Anyway - you do you. I just thought that you were probably quite switched on to world affairs. I was clearly wrong.

@Ciri whilst you think you're avoiding US tech companies by using ecosia, having done some research on their stack a few years ago, I'm sorry to tell you that not only do they use AWS (Amazon cloud) to host their services, but they also partner with Microsoft and Google for retrieval of their search results.

When it comes to technology its practically impossible to not give some revenue to US companies, whether that be direct or indirect.

The same is true for payments - very few of us will have credit/debit cards that don't use the Visa, Mastercard or AMEX networks.

Never let perfection be the enemy of good

Don’t you care about anything except you having a good time. The last time I was in San Francisco, so many of the lovely streets had filled up with mentally ill (often confused for drug addicts) homeless people with no medication. As a mental health professional, witnessing their plight was upsetting. We mentioned this to an American couple we were eating breakfast with (posh bed and breakfast, so shared tables) after we had moved on to Arizona. The man a Pilot apparently, misunderstood our point and said “what a shame you had to see that, they are swept away regularly”. We were sickened by his lack of humanity.

There has been so much wrong with the ‘land of the free’ for a long time. Ordinary people being unable to afford healthcare, people with much better incomes being bankrupted by health care Co-pay (excesses on their insurance policies), gun crime because “they must have the right to bear arms”, the death penalty ( even for children) when every other Western country has long moved on from their Government killing people, the withdrawal of women’s rights over their own bodies, no legal right to time off from jobs, not even for sickness or maternity needs, children of migrants kept in cages, with only other children to care for the youngest and now ICE abusing and killing innocent people on the street.

Still, clearly none of this matters, so long as you can find somewhere nice there to have your holiday 🙄

@StrikeForeverMy last "holiday" was volunteering at an orphanage in India, alongside a group of colleagues.

You are so judgemental of others hough that you probably find that objectionable given:

1: Modi's reputation as being a threat to India’s secular and democratic foundations.

2: My colleagues and I working for a large US corporate

Try and be a bit less confrontational, especially to people, e.g. me, who you know absolutely nothing about

Depends what colour you are….

Obviously that typo was you are allowed to “tell” lies…not “trill”. Ffs, honestly.

Interested to know what job bans you from using Facebook and Instagram though 🤔

if you seriously think that people aren’t boycotting American goods/services snd are just telling lies (what on earth would be the point in that) then I think your maga hat is on a little tightly.

@Ciri I went in 2025 for 3 weeks and everyone was pleasant and welcoming. No one said don’t come. In fact the people who spoke to us wanted to know what we thought and how ashamed they were of the USA . Just staying away isn’t supporting decent people, eg those working in the national parks. The USA will survive without tourists from the uk, but many others are still there - the Chinese for example. It’s a bit like being King Canute. You can pontificate, but you won’t change anything. The Americans have that power. Not anyone else because most won’t care about what you do! (Or think in many cases).

I love America and have had many amazing holidays and trips there. However there was a cultural shift since the Obama years that has seen the left and right become so polarised that it has an angry energy to it that you really can not ignore at the moment.

Honestly - I gave you the benefit of the doubt but you never disappoint.

Engage your brain.

@Ciri Aren’t you just the superior one?! I don’t need lessons from you or your patronising. We don’t all think like you.

@Nutmuncher- do you not feel the same is also happening in the UK, especially with the rise of the Reform party?

@NorthernStar96 I agree with you. Let’s all leave! Not sure any visitor will worry though.

The UK is polarised but the US is a whole other level right now. Our political discourse and the parties themselves are pretty vanilla when compared to The States.

This. 100%

@Nutmuncher- I travel to the US regularly for work ans speak to US colleagues daily. It's really not as polarised as you think amongst normal citizens there - the media (obviously) are highlighting the extremes

I wouldn’t go. I have no interest in supporting that country or its administration at the moment.

Likewise is the case in the UK -when you asked if I felt ‘the same was happening here with the rise of Reform.’

What ‘same’ are you referring to if you and your US colleagues believe the scale of polarisation is being exaggerated in the US media?