Art Garfunkel told The Guardian he is "thinking of leaving the country" over his objections to the Trump administration, the latest celebrity to float an exit without, so far, packing a single bag.
The 84-year-old folk-rock legend, half of the iconic duo Simon & Garfunkel and winner of eight Grammy Awards including a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award, laid out his frustrations in an interview published by The Daily Beast, drawn from a sit-down with The Guardian tied to what appears to be a concert tour.
Garfunkel did not name a destination country. He did not describe any concrete plans to relocate. He offered a stated feeling, not a moving truck.
In the Guardian interview, Garfunkel connected his discontent to a grab bag of concerns, global warming, world hunger, and what he characterized as the United States taking control of Venezuela. He told the outlet:
"It's real that the planet is getting warmer, that the water's rising, that so many people are starving. When Donald Trump took over Venezuela, are those the new rules? Just take over a country and run it? It's shocking."
His characterization of U.S. involvement in Venezuela is his own. The interview does not detail which specific administration policies he objects to beyond that reference and his climate concerns.
Garfunkel also offered a broader statement of alienation from the country he once celebrated in song:
"I don't like America's position at all. I'm not aboard, and I'm thinking of leaving the country, frankly."
Yet even as he voiced that frustration, he acknowledged the limits of his own protest. He conceded that the presidency will eventually change hands and that patience, not departure, may be the more realistic path.
"You think: how on Earth are we gonna change the presidency? But Trump won't last forever. So we've got to hope."
That last line undercuts the headline drama considerably. A man who says "we've got to hope" sounds less like someone booking a one-way flight and more like someone venting to a reporter.
Garfunkel's politics are not new. He has previously supported Bernie Sanders and has long been identified as a liberal voice in the music world. His objections to a Republican administration fit a well-worn pattern among entertainment figures who discover an urgent desire to leave the country every time a conservative wins the White House, and never quite follow through.
On the personal front, Garfunkel and his former partner Paul Simon, also 84, reconciled in 2025 after years of well-documented estrangement. The reunion drew attention from fans of the duo whose catalog, "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "The Sound of Silence," "Mrs. Robinson", remains among the most celebrated in American popular music.
Whether Garfunkel's stated consideration of leaving the United States amounts to anything more than interview talk remains entirely unclear. He named no timeline, no country, and no plan. The interview reads as the frustration of an aging artist who disagrees with the current administration, a sentiment shared by plenty of Americans on both sides of the aisle at various points in history, almost none of whom actually leave.
Celebrities have been promising to move to Canada, Europe, or unspecified foreign shores since at least 2000. The departure lounge stays empty. If Garfunkel does pack up, he will be the first to make good on a pledge that dozens of famous voices have made and quietly abandoned once the cameras moved on.
