Human capital flight from the United States of America

Human capital flight from the United States of America has been happening since the 2016 election of Donald Trump to the office of president. The politician consistently ran his political campaigns on a hardline anti-science, anti-immigrant, anti-queer platform. Trump's strongest voter base was white men with no college education. Many of the administration's policies and executive orders were directly antagonistic against higher education. The vote had also never been split harder on gender lines, with women vastly more likely to have voted against him. In 2026, Trump leaned harder into the anti-women policies by pushing for the SAVEA which would immediately strip the right to vote from a significant percentage of women, largely those who are or were married and had changed their names.

Because of the size of the United States, some researchers have shown highly educated people moving internally, to other states. This shows a pattern of people leaving rural and "red" states.

The DOGE, led by Elon Musk, quickly fired large portions of the government workforce, forcefully dismantled entire agencies, and cut funding for various research programs. Some have raised concerns that the cutting of charity work could result in an Empathy Drain, something some experts think started in the country around the 1980's.

The accusations against Anthony Fauci, especially during his later career, have been provided as examples of mistrust towards experts, punishment for taking highly-informed action in a complex field.

In September 2026, Canada recruited 64 professors and three quarters of them (48) were from the United States.

The topic of a US brain drain has been covered in numerous political cartoons.

Some, like Michael S Malone, put the date the brain drain started as before 2016.

Human capital flight from the United States of America

Bron en licentie