Thousands of Americans have renounced their US citizenship or surrendered permanent residency since early 2026, amid growing dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump's policies and the country's political direction.
According to a report by Newsweek, a total of 4,574 names appeared on the Federal Register’s US expatriation list over the first three quarters of the year, representing individuals whose loss of US citizenship or long-term permanent resident status was reported to the Treasury Department.
The latest quarterly update, issued on Thursday, shows that 1,331 names appeared on the register between July and September alone, although the number was down from 1,462 between January and March and 1,781 between April and June.
Despite this modest quarterly dip, it is clear when comparing these numbers to previous years that 2026 has seen an unusually high number of Americans renounce US citizenship or give up their permanent residency.
The report said that since Trump’s return to the White House, the number of names on the Treasury’s register has been rising.
In the first quarter of 2025, 1,285 Americans formally expatriated or renounced their US citizenship.
The figure fell to 1,057 in the second quarter, rose to 1,593 in the third, and dropped to 954 in the fourth.
The report quoted Peter Spiro, a professor who holds the Charles Weiner Chair in international law at Temple University, as saying that for some who renounced their citizenship or permanent residency, there’s a "sense that America’s future is increasingly problematic."
"In the face of increasing political turbulence, sentimental attachment to the United States has been wearing thin," he said.
A former US citizen living in Europe, who recently renounced their citizenship, previously told Newsweek that their "fundamental dislike of Trump and his policies and the direction in which that country is going" convinced them "to pull the trigger" on a situation they were mulling over for a while.
The report also highlighted that since Trump’s return to the White House, the number of names on the Treasury’s register has been rising.
In the first quarter of 2025, 1,285 Americans formally expatriated or renounced their US citizenship. The figure fell to 1,057 in the second quarter, rose to 1,593 in the third, and dropped to 954 in the fourth.
The register’s US expatriation list reached a record of 5,411 names in 2016, the same year Trump won his first presidential election, beating Hillary Clinton in the November election.
This record was beaten in 2020, when the register listed a total of 6,707 names.
Based on the quarterly reports issued this year so far, 2026 seems on track to beat the 2016 figure—though potentially coming up behind the 2020 one.
The report also said that renunciations started surging after Congress passed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, in 2010.
This federal law requires foreign financial institutions and certain other non-financial foreign entities to report on the foreign assets held by their US account holders.
Before that, the number of Americans losing citizenship or permanent resident status averaged below 500 between 2000 and 2008, with just 452 names on average reported each year during that period.
There is also another reason why many more might have decided to renounce their citizenship or permanent residency over the past few months, according to the report.
As of April 13, the fee applicants had to pay to renounce US citizenship dropped back from $2,350, a level reached in 2015, to $450.
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