A lot has gone down since president Donald Trump took office on January 20.  We asked Americans living in the Netherlands what they thought—and felt—about the situation “back home” and its global—and personal—repercussions. Lauren Comiteau has this recap of what they said.

Dutch American comedian Greg Shapiro, aka the American Netherlander, has spent years making part of his living impersonating Donald Trump. Election years, especially, were lucrative times.

But since Trump became the 47th president of the US, the gigs have dried up.

“Lots of people make the observation that my phone must be ringing off the hook since the election,” he says. “But that’s not the case. No one is calling.”

Shapiro himself isn’t surprised. He says he noticed the same thing after Trump was sworn in for the first time eight years ago. “It’s funny until it isn’t,” he says. “The weekend after his first inauguration, he talked about his crowd size being bigger than Obama’s. That’s funny enough. But then he enacted a Muslim travel ban the next week. People were hurt and scared and not ready to laugh.”

Fast-forward to 2025 and its much the same, with many Americans in the Netherlands hurt and scared and not ready to laugh either.

“It’s just all horrifying, but like a train wreck, I can’t seem to look away,” says flight attendant and Dutch resident Candace Kabela. “Whether we like it or not, America has been the leader of the free world for the last 70 years. To see this shift would have been unthinkable to any of us even a year ago. It just makes me so very sad.”

And anxious. Many of her relatives back in Texas, she says, are huge Trump supporters. “They’ve fallen into the ‘Make America great again’ cult. My mom, in particular, seems to have stopped talking to me. She thinks I’m a traitor because this administration told its followers that those who aren’t in line are traitors to the US. I should be going to check on my aging parents, but I’ve just not been able to make myself. Plus, I honestly don’t know if I’d be welcome now.”

Kabela, who runs a couple of international commuting groups for cabin crew that helps them with questions ranging from visas to medical care to taxes, commutes from Amsterdam to New York to start her shift.

“I get anxiety each time before I go now,” she says. “Measles spreading…and, as an airline employee, all the mess they’re creating with air traffic controllers, doing away with the aviation safety board and now refusing the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) its pay raise.”

You can’t go home again

Shapiro says his wife jokes with him to visit “home” sooner rather than later—“before Trump bans all travel from the EU or Russia decides to take over the North Atlantic or there are no more air traffic controllers. It’s so unpredictable. When I touch down, is someone going to check my social media? I’m also kind of nervous about getting back.”

Amsterdam resident Jana (65), a programme manager at ING, has been living in the Netherlands for 30 years. “I was going to move home to Texas, where my sister and family live, to retire. But no way now,” she says. “I always said I’d never give up my American passport, but now I don’t know.”

Michael P. McAssey gave up his American passport just last year at the age of 61. A dual Irish citizen who moved to Amsterdam in 2011 to finish his PhD, the Amsterdam University College lecturer was driven mostly by the cumbersome US tax requirements Americans abroad face. But the re-election of Donald Trump sealed the deal.

“It helps me to feel like I made the right decision,” he says. “What’s happening in the US is appalling, but not too surprising. It’s really sad.”

“The guy is literally a moron. I’m pretty sure his high school diploma was not earned, and his college degree definitely not. He’s constantly lying, is crooked and attacks people. It’s awful.”

But his biggest concern is a possible war in Europe over Ukraine. He has no faith Russia would ever abide by a deal. “Putin will take over Ukraine, or Europe will pick up arms and go in. The result is a pretty high chance of serious warfare in Europe. It could lead to World War III.”

“Europe doesn’t want peace”

But for Florida native Will Skultety (43), who works in financial services and lives with his Dutch wife and five children in Amsterdam, it’s Europe who is gearing up for war.

“I don’t believe Putin has imperialistic ambitions to drive war in Europe,” says Will. “But Europe doesn’t want peace. Macron and Germany are spending money to arm themselves, leading to further confrontation with Russia. Other nations, including the Netherlands, must go in the same direction.

“That will have a knock-on effect on the welfare state, but hopefully it won’t lead to a dramatic decrease in social benefits. But increased government spending will be funded by increased taxes, so it will affect all of us.”

Will says he’d like to see less polarisation back home than what we’ve become used to in recent years. “But as a right-leaning person, I see the Trump administration’s approach and policies as positive and favourable.”

He points to much-needed fiscal belt-tightening, tackling an unsustainable deficit and a refreshingly direct, if confrontational, approach by Trump 2.0. Will also says he understands Trump’s desire to strengthen relationships with the big powers, including Russia and China. “Europe has benefitted from US policies for a long time,” he says. “Those relationships have to be reshaped.”

Flying blind

But for Joshua M. Tybur, professor of psychology and infectious disease at Amsterdam’s VU university, the first months of Trump’s presidency have been disastrous. “I’m feeling a complex mix of emotions, something between shame and despondency,” he says. “To see a small concentration of people making decisions outside of normal processes is depressing.”

He’s worried about his parents back home in Arizona, who depend on social security and medicare (health insurance for seniors) to live. He’s concerned about cuts to infrastructure and the “seemingly indiscriminate firing of federal employees.” And he’s disturbed by Trump’s disregard for Europe and the liberal values that have led to decades of economic and social prosperity in the West.

“He’s betraying countries who have been our partners and allies for decades,” says Joshua. “The administration is swinging a wrecking ball for no seeming reason. It’s like the pilot has passed out and we’re relying on a drunk passenger with no flying experience to land the plane.”

Joshua says he already sees the effects of Trump’s policies at the university level. Some of his Fulbright Scholarship students may not receive their money due to a recent state department freeze on study-abroad funding. And investment in scientific research is not only decreasing, he says, but current commitments aren’t being honoured.

“The US has historically led research in cancer, nutritional science and vaccine development,” he says. “These research lines require decades of planning and funding, and he’s withholding the money that congress has already approved. It’s decimating to science. It’s difficult to know the long-term damage, but it benefits the health of the entire world for the US to lead. Everyone should be interested in scientific progress.”

His list of worries goes on: nuclear proliferation, AI and climate change. Especially when it comes to his young son. “I see the US doing a 180 degree turn so quickly, and it makes me think about a much more unstable and uncertain world than the one I want my son to live in.”

Keep hope alive?

For Emma, a 22-year-old Dutch American college student who was born and raised in Amsterdam, these times are downright terrifying.

“It looks like a bunch of dictators have so much power now, the richest, dumbest billionaires in the world,” she says. “What’s even more scary is that so many people voted for him, and how he’s trying to take over the whole world, like Canada, Greenland and Panama. Even reposting videos of making a resort in Gaza just shows you what kind of dictator he is and it’s fucking scary, to be honest.”

She’s worried about her cousins and friends in the US—or even herself if she decides to live there one day—who face limited access to abortion. Another relative is non-binary.

“They’re thinking now that certain places will only hire a man or a woman and not anything or anyone in between. And saying there’s only two genders puts those who think differently in danger.”

While Emma acknowledges it’s the young who are going to have to live in this increasingly “creepy” world, she’s hopeful.

“I hold in the back of my mind the idea that things can always change,” she says. “Remember when you guys were in a Cold War and thought it was the end of the world? And then there was a black president in the US. Now there’s a dictator.

“Things can change, so it’s not like this is gonna be forever. But we’re just going to have to see what happens, because the lunatic is speaking also about not believing in climate change. But I think that’s a question for the long run.”