Hey Trump
....here is my answer.
Go fuck yourself, you narcissistic sack of shit.
Good, now hopefully Im barred from the USA.
Canada, still love you guys.
Welcome to America - now show us your last five years of social media posts
The next time someone visits the US, customs may ask to see their passport, their Facebook feed, and all of their Instagram posts. The United States maintains a list of 42 countries whose citizens are allowed to enter without a visa, but visitors from those nations may soon have to provide five years' worth of their social media …
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 18:05 GMT alain williams
Re: Hey Trump
Does El-Reg count as social media ? I have always thought of it as a techies forum where we occasionally stray into other areas, not social media.
I do not do farcebook, instagram, etc so I suspect that me putting "None" would immediately flag me as suspicious.
Email addresses: I have hundreds, I usually trivially generate one every time I buy something on-line or register something like their-company-name@a-domain-of-mine.
If they do trawl friends with gmail, microsoft, etc addresses they will see my derision of Trump and support of Palestine -- either of which would probably make me persona non grata.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 18:25 GMT Pete 2
Re: Hey Trump
> Email addresses: I have hundreds
Those of us whose internet presence sports a mailer that accepts anything@domainname.TLD could legitimately claim to have a nearly infinite number of email addresses. I wonder if they require hard copies of each one, or just a few TB of data?
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Thursday 11th December 2025 07:52 GMT Anonymous Coward
Same here
plus no Google presence, no MS account.
IF.... and that is a big IF I go to the USA again, I'll take a clean phone and laptop. Everything else I need would be in my private cloud and the ICE goons can go to hell before I give them details of that.
Oh well, El Salvador here I come.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 21:44 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Hey Trump
When the US sends its government, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with them. They’re bringing far-right Nazism, they’re bringing corruption, they’re rapists, and none, we can safely assume, are good people.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 20:40 GMT Androgynous Cupboard
Re: Hey Trump
> Canada, still love you guys.
Well, when you fly to Canada be sure to take a direct flight. I know of someone who was "deported" from the US without even arriving, technically - while flying from Auckland to Vancouver, in transit at LAX. That was a over a decade ago - pre trump, pre Obama even.
Oh and make sure your flight doesn't have engine trouble too, because I know of someone else with schizophrenia who had to make a forced stop in Saudia Arabia while en-route from UK to Australia. I think this one was in the news in Oz, he was in jail for some time.
Actually, best make sure you're not even crossing their airspace, in case Trump decides to take a page from Putin's playbook: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanair_Flight_4978.
And although that's all pretty awful, consider how much worse it would be trying to take the boat from Venezuala.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 21:50 GMT isdnip
Re: Hey Trump
There was a case that got pretty good publicity this fall about a woman transiting from Mexico to Canada at LAX. La Migra arrested her and kept her in one of their dungeons for a while before pressure got her let out. Their excuse was that they didn't think she was really in transit and planned to work illegally in California. You know, arrest on pre-crime, even though she had a ticket out.
FWIW, Trump's real esnake career was failing and he got famous again when Mark Burnett cast him as the tycoon on The Apprentice (Warren Buffett wasn't interested). Burnett had struck it rich pitching a version of Europe's Robinson Island to US TV, who called it Survivor. Burnett was English. He had vacationed in Mexico and had a transit stop in Los Angeles. He didn't get on the plane home, and snuck out and found work in LA even though he was an "illegal alien". But he was white so he wasn't deported. And come to think of it, Malaria herself was working illegally in the US when Trump picked her to replace Marla.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 22:17 GMT anothercynic
Re: Hey Trump
It depends on the airport and the country.
In Europe, I am aware of Copenhagen Airport where they required a transit visa because of the way the airport is laid out (you can't actually get from one side of the airport to another gate unless you enter the country/airport). I don't know whether that has changed in the last 15 years, but at the time it caused absolute drama because the Danish border police were not amused by the fact that they had to now babysit someone until the departing flight was ready to close doors. Only then did the airport people send a car for a gate-to-aircraft door transfer that was officially airside.
In LAX, Air New Zealand, when they moved from Terminal 2 (where they provided the Koru Lounge to Virgin Atlantic passengers etc) to the Tom Bradley international terminal (the massive one where all A380s end up), notified passengers that there was no sterile 'airside' space/lounge, and that those flying to/from NZ to/from LHR would be required to enter the US for transit processing. That pretty much killed ANZ for me, especially because they'd stopped their AKL-HKG-LHR flight a few years before, so you *had* to go via LAX. :-/
In South Africa, you had a similar thing - The flights done for BA by Comair went from the domestic terminal, not the international one. That meant you had to officially enter South Africa too, despite being just a transit passenger from [insert departure airport] to [ultimate destination airport in other country] because Johannesburg was *the* hub airport in Southern Africa and everyone flew there.
A lot of these things are historical... bad/outdated airport layouts, opportunities to cash in on transit visas, legal requirements based on old airline/intergovernmental treaty agreements... the list goes on. So yes folks... there are weird and wonderfully wacky combinations that catch you out when you least expect.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 14:20 GMT druck
Re: Hey Trump
It was the same when we few back from Auckland to London via New York (16 hours on a 787, but luckily with sky couches), had to go through immigration to get to another terminal, which took so long we almost missed the connecting flight. Canada next time, no matter what the extra cost.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 17:29 GMT Adair
Re: Hey Trump
Gave up flying NZ-UK via US years ago, apart from one exception about ten years ago. Some improvement in the 'transit hospitality', no improvement in the 'customs inhospitality'. Won't ever be flying via the States again when there are far more pleasant transit experiences to be had via the Eastern routes (Dubai, Singapore, even Hong Kong).
The US was a 'great' country once (notwithstanding its massive flaws and failings—every nation has those in some form), but it's well and truly in decline now. Not beyond recovery, but if the trend continues it's on the downward slope of decay and rottenness. Still powerful, but flailingly wildly in the hands of self-serving money-grubbers. What damage might they do, to their people and to the rest of the world? Shame.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 22:51 GMT Chet Mannly
Re: Hey Trump
"in transit at LAX"
There's no such thing as transit in LAX (or any US airport) anymore. You have to enter the country, go through customs and immigration, then back through the exit process in order to get on your next flight.
So these changes don't just apply to people who want to enter the country for holidays etc
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 18:16 GMT VoiceOfTruth
It is regrettable, but I have to agree. I have fond memories of previous visits. But I won't be going back.
There is a strand of thinking in the USA that can be summarised as: everyone is an enemy. If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear? I don't think so. The right wing religious crowd are the most un-Christian unforgiving bunch of zealots you could encounter.
American politicians have adopted the mantra of 'the USA or the highway'. Well, I'm taking the highway.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 20:45 GMT Anonymous Coward
So, what's the message they want to send to would-be-tourists? That they're a country that doesn't want or need them?
Or that they arrogantly take for granted that *everyone* is so desperate to visit the US that they'll be willing to jump through *any* hoops- however unreasonable- and tolerate the risk of deportation from the "Free" World because of some long-forgotten social media comment from several years back saying something the current regime- or power-abusing Trumpist TSA agent- doesn't like and wants to portray as "anti-American"?
Rival destinations should certainly be playing off the (entirely legitimate) fear that even "reasonable" tourists risk being treated that way every time they want to visit the US and exercise the "privilege" of handing over their hard-earned cash to Uncle Sam and his disagreeable mates. Then again, they probably don't need to do so, since that possibility seems to be putting people off already.
Of course, there will always be people who assume they won't be affected, and don't care how shitty the politics or attitudes of the people they're supporting are, so long as they get to visit Disney World or whatever. Until *they* get kicked out anyway because of something they did or didn't say- that they probably didn't even realise was controversial- and there are photos of them with "sad" faces all over the media back home and it eventually starts to seep in with even *those* types that visiting the US isn't worth the risk.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 07:27 GMT simonlb
It's like the police caution, "Anything you say will be used against you." Something you may have liked or shared on social media a decade ago will potentially be used to condemn you even though you may now no longer agree with that item and have a different viewpoint. This is all just fishing for any excuse to stop you from entering the country, buy why would any sane person put themselves at risk by even trying to travel there?
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Thursday 11th December 2025 14:59 GMT MyffyW
Re: “God’s Own country”
It's true: as an example of successful multiculturalism Trump should study the Lancashire-Yorkshire dynamic:
- No Tarriffs
- No Borders
- Plenty of Muslims (and other faiths, and no faiths, and the better for it)
- Gorgeous scenery
- Ancient animosity consigned to a little bit of gentle ribbing about the dismal prospects of cricket/football/rugby teams
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Saturday 13th December 2025 08:29 GMT The Organ Grinder's Monkey
"Anything you say will be used against you." Something you may have liked or shared on social media a decade ago will potentially be used to condemn you..."
That's not just the US though, is it? That's playing out globally with so-called celebrities & so-called politicians having to issue apologies for things that they said on antisocial media when they were 12. Given that that behaviour seems now to be entrenched as normal & reasonable in the minds of "the voting public" how long before similar practices start appearing at borders of countries that we've always assumed to be rational? (Which is not an assumption that I've ever made about the USA.)
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 17:47 GMT JLV
As a Canadian, I only live 35 km from the border. I rather like Washington and Oregon and like to take the train or drive down the coast but will be sitting this out till MAGA is gone.
It's not just political though. Think about it. Under the current circumstances you could easily run afoul of something or another and be turned back. And then you'd have an entry refusal on your US border records which would make any future trips much more problematic, even years past Trump. Including for non-trivial stuff like medical trips or flying anywhere with a layover in the US. So think of it as an investment to protect your travel capabilities, including to the US.
Wonder if El Reg counts for social media?
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 18:02 GMT werdsmith
The Register comments are just articles that are open to comments. Not social media.
You cannot start your own subject by posting a picture of your dinner or a newly decorated Christmas tree. You can’t “friend” or “follow” nor can you build a following.
I have no account on Faecebook, Twatter(X), Insta, TikTok, Snapchat or any of those other things since I closed one about 10 years ago. I do have some information on LinkedIn because some recruiters insist on it, and GitHub of course.
“Oh my gaahhd! You don’t don’t have a Facebook account?”
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 18:21 GMT VoiceOfTruth
>> The Register comments are just articles that are open to comments. Not social media.
I am not sure you are correct. By creating comments you are engaging with other people. I have no doubt another regal declaration, AKA executive order, will define social media as: anything on the internet that anybody posts.
It is worth noting the American regime wants your email addresses and so on for the last 10 years. That is how long, at least, they have been hoovering up everything to check you against.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 19:31 GMT Anonymous Coward
> "I am not sure you are correct [that this forum isn't "social media"]. By creating comments you are engaging with other people."
I've seen this argument made before and I disagree with it. It's technically correct that we're using "media" for somewhat "social" purposes here. But in practice that's not how the term is commonly used, and I don't recall hearing it before the early-to-mid-2000s rise of the newer person-centric style social networking sites it was first associated with and which it was presumably felt necessary to apply a new label to, as distinct from the older, simpler, discussion-centric web forums like the one we're using here.
Of course, regardless, this is all academic and won't cut any ice with the US government or a TSA agent that wants to interpret or define it otherwise, as widely and loosely as possible- which they certainly will.
Particularly if they're fishing for as much as possible to give them an arbitrary excuse to punish someone they don't like. (Which most likely will include any conflating criticism of the current Trump regime or anything resembling support for their political opponents with anti-American views).
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 21:19 GMT Anonymous Coward
... won't cut any ice with the US government or a TSA agent that wants to interpret or define it otherwise ...
No, it will definitely not.
It is my understanding that the chap sitting in the admissions booth has the last say with respect to your entering the US.
Options include getting sent back to where you came from, forcibly moved to a holding cell or subjected to a search of sorts.
The option may well depend on his humour, most particularly if they did not get laid the night before.
No need to risk going through all that shit.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 20:09 GMT an it guy
I have a problem with this last 10 years thing.
I have definitely created email addresses in the last 10 years that I've forgotten about and no longer use. We're they useful ? Sure I created one specifically for dating and via a site I met my now wife on. I certainly can't accurately remember that email address as it was meant to be a throwaway address because someone had been stalky enough that the police had to get involved (not entirely their fault - they were on medication - and had a condition that made this more likely, but certainly not advertised on their profile).
Not that I've any intention to travel to the land of the (previously) "free" even though I know a good many people there. The current administration has made that basically not worth doing
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 20:39 GMT VoiceOfTruth
Here's the thing with your forgotten email address: the fact that you have forgotten it will likely be considered 'being evasive', 'hiding information', 'non-disclosure of required information', or some other reason to 'investigate further'.
Whether you or I like it or not, all of our details are in an American database right now. Every known person in the world. And any new snippet of information that gets discovered will be added to it.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 18:40 GMT Anonymous Coward
“Oh my gaahhd! You don’t don’t have a Facebook account?”
My in-laws are Japanese and have been living in Brazil for decades. Every few years, they return to Japan for family visits and (I suspect) binge eating in kaiten-zushi restaurants.
They are eligible for ESTA, but since Trump I they avoid traveling through the USA due to the uncertainty -- they believe _something_ may happen and they won't be able to explain themselves (I am old and Japanese).
I used to visit some colleagues at universities there, but I'll take a reverse-sabbatical. I never had any issues with the law, but what they have there now is not sane -- and I refuse to have a social network, therefore I am suspicious as hell.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 21:02 GMT Uncle Slacky
> “Oh my gaahhd! You don’t don’t have a Facebook account?”
I do - or rather, did, since FB don't think I'm a real person unless I film my face and head for them (which I wasn't about to do). As a result they sent me an email a few days ago telling me my account is now permanently closed (amusingly, with a "click here to log in to FB" button underneath the message).
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Thursday 11th December 2025 09:45 GMT Uncle Slacky
I think they've let AI loose on their membership, I guess I wasn't active enough in the "right" ways and blocked their ads (I was using Fluff Busting Purity and Ublock Origin to make FB vaguely usable). The few comments and posts I made were also decidedly anti-Trump in character, which might also have had something to do with it.
It's likely that no human was involved in the process (and I expect nobody saw your middle finger either).
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Thursday 11th December 2025 15:27 GMT I ain't Spartacus
Facebook killed my account years ago, because I'd not logged in for a couple of months (only had the account to see family photos and rarely posted) - so logging in with the right password only got me to a screen demanding a copy of my passport. Nah.
Worse though, it means I can't close the account. At which point I can't even tell the US government that I don't have a social media account, because one may still exist. I'd have to create a new FB account to search FB for my old account and see if it's still there... Or I suppose I could talk to a person and ask one of the rellies to check. But speaking to people... Yuck! How very last century...
I did have a Myspace account, if that helps. But I can't even remember what email address I used to set it up, let alone what my password was.
That leaves me with El Reg, or I guess creating a Twitter account or something. I can't imagine getting in without something to show them.
My brother lives over there now, so I actually have reason to go. I could risk it, and rely on Colorado having a nicer quality of immigration official. I let my Mum go first on my last visit, and the immigration guy noticed we were together and invited me up to process us together. He even smiled at us both, and was pleasant. Not had that at immigration anywhere else. Maybe it's because Mum was getting assistance to go through the airport - so we got nicer treatment because we turned up on a golf cart? I definitely recommend travelling with an 85 year-old for the benefits of being taken to the front of every queue. But sadly she's decided the trip is too much now, so next time I'm on my own.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 18:00 GMT nematoad
Pulling out the old foot-gun?
... but visitors from those nations may soon have to provide five years' worth of their social media history in order to gain entry.
Well that's me stuffed. I have never had any "social media" accounts so I would have to try and prove a negative.
Not that I have any burning desire to visit the US but this sort of nonsense would definitely put me off and, I suspect, it will a lot of people.
Has there been any sign that Russia is going to be treated more leniently that the UK and the EU? Putin definitely seems to be on Trump's Christmas card list.
If I ever made a trip to North America, Canada would be the place I would choose.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 15:30 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: Pulling out the old foot-gun?
Well "tourist" sounds enough like "terrorist" that the knuck-draggers in charge think they are the same thing.
After all, the latest immigrant bans from "3rd world" countries is based on the murders of two National Guards by an Afghan immigrant which the USA invited into the USA for services rendered. There's no plausible link between the murders and the response other than to compare with other dictatorships using any pretext to remove more and more freedoms and consolidate government authority
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Friday 12th December 2025 21:09 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Just have to hope...
"Just have to hope my flight to Canada isn't diverted."
I seem to remember something about the USA having "powers" over any flights that pass within a certain distance of the USA borders and so some direct flights from other countries to parts of Canada and Mexico can be required to land in USA if there are "persons of interest" on board them or those persons might be prevented from boarding such flights in the 1st place.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 18:43 GMT Michael
emails
10 year of email addresses? I doubt I could remember all of mine. I certainly don't keep a record of them all.
What's the intent here? If they arrest you at a later date and spot a mistake on the form you filled din before arrival they have a case to lock you up?
I mean criminals will just break the law. It's only going to inconvenience people who choose to visit America. Fortunately there is plenty of the world out with the USA t visit. I do wonder how many academic conferences will migrate to Canada or elsewhere as people decide they just can't be bothered with all the hoops to jump through.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 19:15 GMT that one in the corner
Re: emails
> 10 year of email addresses? I doubt I could remember all of mine. I certainly don't keep a record of them all.
Guaranteed I can't remember mine.
Since beginning from my first personal 'Net connection with Demon, I've always used catch-all emails with a domain, so every registration, online shop, random interaction has used a different email. But as I didn't get around to buying "my own" domain until very recently, I've lost a few domains over the decade (and others before that) and therefore all of those email addresses. A few of the more useful registrations would be updated for continuity, but on the whole didn't bother (this is at least my fourth El Reg "identity" IIRC). And as there was no point in keeping track of email addresses that were no longer usable...
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Thursday 11th December 2025 15:38 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: emails
"how many academic conferences will migrate to Canada or elsewhere as people decide they just can't be bothered with all the hoops to jump through."
Already happened. I await with interest the fun as footie fans travel to and between the USA, Mexico and Canada for the World Cup. Trump has already politicised it by making thinly veiled threat without evidence to force matched held in blue cities to be moved to places with more reddish tinge. The FIFA "peace prize" was obviously an ego stroke in an attempt to distract Trump.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 18:48 GMT Boris the Cockroach
Well thats
me buggered.
I'm on farcebork , mostly to stay in contact with friends spread to the 4 corners of the earth (yeah I'm a square earthist*)
And most of them are either centerist or left leaning, even the right leaning guys look at trump and say "what an orange cockwomble"
So now the US government wants to trawl my social media posts in case I've said anything nasty about the current shit shower that claims to be the US government.
I can scream 'first amendment' all I like but as a non US citizen, I dont have those rights unless I'm on US soil.... but my friends ARE US citizens, and its a very nice way to find out which US citizens support the current white house occupant(when hes not tearing half of it down and covering the rest in some fake gold tat) completely infringing their rights under the first amendment.
*flat earth is so yesterday.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 22:27 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: The right number of corners
I think maybe they were confused. Surely, insisting on there being four corners would make them a tetrahedral earthist. Handily, this would also mean that there are four sides (faces), thus minimising any confusing use of too many different numbers :-)
/ob But don't mention the edges.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 01:43 GMT Bebu sa Ware
Re: The right number of corners
The planet is credibly an oblate spheroid but Trumpisstan always was a Möbius strip (everything has only one side) but is now, reflecting the topology of DJT's feat of shoving his head so far up his own arse so that it emerged from the other end, a Klein bottle.
Oh dear. I suppose I shan't ever be visiting Hawaii now.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 19:55 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: To borrow a phrase ... SAD!
It certainly is if you judge them by their purported ideals.
But the irony is that the phrase "un-American" itself, and the context in which it was first used- the "House Un-American Activities Committee"- isn't any better in that respect. If anything it sounds even *more* Orwellian and reminiscent of the language used by the type of totalitarian communist regimes they supposedly wanted to define themselves against.
In other words, "un-American" might be just about the most "un-American" expression ever. Or, then again, it may well be unintentionally appropriate.
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Tuesday 16th December 2025 16:38 GMT collinsl
Re: To borrow a phrase ... SAD!
Including:
Franklin D Roosevelt
Harry S Truman
Dwight D Eisenhower
John F Kennedy
Lyndon B Johnson
Richard M Nixon
Gerald R Ford
?
The House Un-American Activities Committee sat for all or part of all of those Presidential terms.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 19:19 GMT Emjay111
Uncertain times ahead
I live around 10Km from the border, and on my journey to work, I pass a couple of variable message signs which give an indication of delays at the three nearest land border crossings. Prior to the recent White House incumbent taking office, the delays could be typically 20 minutes but often much higher.
I've noticed that since Jan 2025, the delays are NEVER over 5 minutes, so there is (as official statistics prove) a severe downturn in day trips, commercial goods, and holidaymakers going south.
I'd always wanted to do a road trip through BC, The Yukon, and into Alaska to drive to the Arctic ocean along the Dalton Highway. That's on hold indefinitely.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 19:32 GMT Excused Boots
Re: Uncertain times ahead
Apparently visits from Canada to the US is down for ten consecutive months; what might that be? And it’s not just Canada.
I doubt that many Canadians, are trying to infiltrate the US, plan terrorist cells, etc. Probably they just want to visit, have a good time, spend money and boost your local economy. Fine!
Except now they are perceived as ‘not welcome, jog on’. I need to double check the reference but apparently the US is the only country in the world to have experience a big decrease in tourism this year. Why?
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 22:28 GMT anothercynic
Re: Uncertain times ahead
Canadians used to *love* to visit Florida (snowbird, summer heat, you get the drift) and Vegas.
Florida pretty much saw their Canadian visitors evaporate after Drumf decided to slap tariffs on Canada, and Canada went "FUVM" with their money. So places like the Bahamas, Bermuda, Mexico (especially Mexico after Drumf did the same to them, and Canadians went "you're our people") and Europe saw a big influx in Canadian tourists.
Vegas has also seen a big downturn to the point that the tourism board is trying to persuade Canadians to go back. But they won't. They've been mortally insulted by the orange turd and his weirdoes in the White House.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 19:37 GMT may_i
Letting the cat out of the bag
It's an interesting admission from the US that all they need is your identifiers to find all the data about you that they've intercepted from the Internet and added to their data lake.
If anyone needed confirmation that the US spies on everything everyone does on the Internet, this is it.
It saddens me to know that I'll never visit the US again. I have some good friends who live there, but I won't ever be visiting them at home again. The mad orange king's racism and delusions have put paid to any desire to visit.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 19:49 GMT Nematode
Bovvered?
Am I bovvered? Nah.
Short version: I was born in the US of UK parents and left at age 4. Birth in the US confers US citizenhood, which in turn imposes on all US citizens the requirement to file tax returns in the US, every year, even if there is no US income. It's called citizen-based-taxation, and the only other country which does that is Eritrea.
So a few years back I retired, then got seriously ill (and I mean seriously) and whilst trying to recover my bank suddenly flagged up that as I was a US citizen I had to comply with the "FATCA" international agreement. With a reasonable pension fund and bank accounts at risk, I had to go through the palaver of 5 years of IRS returns (costly as it's impossible without a US-certified tax accountant) and an expatriation request so that I could quit their nonsense. Fortunately the tax "due" was below a $25,000 threshold below which they waived it. Cr@pping myself until that point, I already had PTSD from the emergency illness trauma.
So, once expatriated I decided they could stuff their damned country and they would never get another penny from me even as a tourist. If I ever go across the pond again, it'll be to Canada.
So this doesn't bovver me at all. Talk to the hand because the face ain't listenin.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 19:59 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Bovvered?
The worst thing is that, even if you didn't ask for that "privilege" of citizenship, and want to relinquish it because you have no intention of ever using it- which I'd probably want to do if I were in your position- you still have to pay them a fee to do so. ($2350, apparently).
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Friday 12th December 2025 21:03 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Bovvered?
"I wonder if making such a demand in the UK would fall foul of modern anti-slavery legislation as it sounds an awful lot of having to buy your own freedom."
Doesn't the UK government effectively do this for people in Northern Ireland who, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, decide they're an Irish citizen and not a UK citizen? The UK Home Office does not appear to recognise this GFA right.
There was a court case several years ago (before Brexit) where a NI woman (holding only an Irish passport and as per GFA decided she was Irish only) wanted her (USA citizen) husband to move to NI, which EU law permitted, but the UK Home Office "decided" she was British and so wouldn't let her husband couldn't move to NI. The Home Office did suggest she could formally give up her UK citizenship but she refused to give up something that she said she didn't have in the first place.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 20:01 GMT Nematode
Re: Bovvered?
Yep, $2350 is right. They hiked it from $450 a few years ago as so many were expatriating and saw an opportunity. Moves afoot to reduce to $450 again, though any fee is a discouragement to expatriating which is every US citizen's right. Should be free. Whole shebang cost me around £15k, mostly professional fees. Glad I'm out of it all.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 12:58 GMT Dr. G. Freeman
It's so they can tie the information in the social media's (and the backup copy the three letter agencies have) database of "Joebloggs1471" social media to an actual "Bloggs, Joe A. passport number xxxxxx", and so plug it it into other databases with that information for whatever reason they want it for.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 20:02 GMT Michael Hoffmann
And if you (truthfully) state that you don't have any social media accounts, and haven't had any (I quit FB close on 10 years ago and don't even have the account info anymore), you get deported for lying at best and handed over to ICE thugs at worst?
I could only give them LinkedIn, and the drone at passport control would prolly go "what's that?"
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Thursday 11th December 2025 16:50 GMT Cris E
Terrorism is as terrorism does, so tipping a pint to the green in the name of Famine emigrees really doesn't feel much like driving a plane into a building. Funny what proximity can do. Hopefully proximity to an outright police state will get some Americans off their butts and take some of this seriously.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 20:07 GMT IGotOut
Hopefully...
...the UK will do the same, if we are unfortunate enough for him not to drop dead in the next few years.
I imagine him coining to the UK to vidt his pretty little gold course, only to be taken into customs, interrogated for 24 hours over his hate for the UK and Europe, then sent back cattle class back to the US....in handcuffs.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 20:17 GMT Long John Silver
Workarounds?
To show willing, one must open some social media accounts under one's true identity and post harmless, inane remarks. It's better not to show support for any US political faction, e.g. nice things said about Trump may alienate a subsequent Administration.
Similarly, for email. Google should fit the bill.
An additional precaution when entering/re-entering the USA, the UK, and some other places, is to remove all non-essential information (including dodgy contacts) from mobile devices. Prior to travel, encrypted versions can be placed in store on the Internet (e.g. in storage provided for a free ProtonMail account opened under an assumed name). Upon passing border controls, restore what's needed.
If likely to be stopped and searched beyond the border, place immediately needed information in 'VeraCrypt' "deniable' container files.
To further cover one's tracks, place religious material (e.g. Christian Zionism) on one's devices. Perhaps, some benign contributions to associated social media would help. Whatever unfamiliar group is joined, an 'AI' can spout plausible nonsense to make one look genuine.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 02:34 GMT Fruit and Nutcase
Re: I hope this hurts attendance for the World Cup
Infantino[FIFA] Prize for Literature goes to Donald J Trump, for his prose on Truth SocialInfantino[FIFA] Prize for Medicine goes to Donald J Trump for his disinfectant treatment for CovidInfantino[FIFA] Prize for Economics goes to Donald J Trump for his Import TariffsInfantino[FIFA] Prize for Chemistry goes to Donald J Trump for his secret fake tan formulaInfantino[FIFA] Prize for Physics goes to Donald J Trump for his $92billion "Golden Age" investment in AI and Energy will mean we'll finally have practical Fusion Energy-
Thursday 11th December 2025 16:54 GMT Cris E
Re: I hope this hurts attendance for the World Cup
> Infantino[FIFA] Prize for Chemistry goes to Donald J Trump for his secret fake tan formula
Just want to point out that there's *nothing* secret about that fake tan. Wow, just horrible. Seriously, can no one speak to this man about his appearance? Fat, naked, orange emperor is sad and needs someone to step in to give him a little dignity in his dotage.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 22:07 GMT DS999
Re: I hope this hurts attendance for the World Cup
If there was one curse I wish I could inflict on Trump, it would be that he knows exactly what everyone around him says about him behind his back.
If he knew how ridiculed he was by literally everyone, he'd probably off himself in a fit of despondency.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 21:12 GMT Androgynous Cupboard
Re: I hope this hurts attendance for the World Cup
Empty seats? Try an empty pitch - half the teams won't be able to come.
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Friday 12th December 2025 06:32 GMT DS999
Re: I hope this hurts attendance for the World Cup
Even if they AI'ed a bunch of CGI butts in the seats for the TV broadcasts, literally everyone attending in person will be taking photos / video. The con job would be uncovered via Instagram and Tik Tok posts before the national anthem was sung, and it would be the ultimate Streisand Effect to call everyone's attention to the empty seats.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 20:53 GMT Jou (Mxyzptlk)
Even thinner skinned
Being offended by the slighted criticism. Yes, that is Trump logic. Applied to the whole nation a disaster for the free and freedom. When will the first big companies move out? They all have their plans ready to "suddenly" switch their main site to a different country, especially IT related companies. And those plans are not new, some of them have them ready for 20+ years.
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Friday 12th December 2025 05:13 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Even thinner skinned
I don't see any of those big companies suffering much from having the arms twisted sooo hard to stop DEI, unions, environmental, fair trade practices. Even being able to compete with each other to parade massive bribes publicly must feel much better that having shady characters passing brown envelopes in seedy bars.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 21:02 GMT chivo243
But, but, but... What do I tell them?
I don't have any of those accounts... No Gram, No Toc, No FaecesBook. I have logins The Register and one other tech site. Oh, I did have a Slashdot login at the turn of the century, and a login on a now defunct Dating website(not app!) from 16 or 17 years ago, and I certainly wasn't spouting any political gibberish.
What do I tell them?
Well, since I'm merkin I guess nothing, but IF I was French or Dutch, what then?
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Thursday 11th December 2025 17:01 GMT Cris E
Re: But, but, but... What do I tell them?
"Dude, I'm 60. I got work, personal, and a junk account and that's about it. I got a moribund FB account to see what my kids were doing 15 years ago, IG to see my daughter's college sports and that's it."
You really shouldn't need to tell them much. Give them the basics and they'll find a very middle-aged absence of anything good. If they really care they'll find the rest just based on where your junk account has been used. Honestly if they can't find more than you can remember with AI combing thru their amassed data I'll eat my hat.
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Wednesday 10th December 2025 21:17 GMT Zakspade
Football
Naturally, football fans will travel to the US and bolster the visitor figures so Trumpet will be able to claim figures are up...
But seriously, it may be worth noting that if one is turned away from the US (refused entry), such things can be reflected in passports. Good luck trying to gain entry into any other country with a 'denied entry' stamp in your passport.
There was a time when certain countries in the Middle East would refuse entry to passport holders with the 'wrong' stamp within from other certain countries. There was never an investigation. 'Wrong' stamp = refused entry. No discussion. No one was interested in why.
A day trip to France on the ferry from Blighty could potentially be interesting if refused US entry...
But then, it is possible that other countries will ignore the ravings of an obviously dysfunctional border control and decide to treat such entry refusals as being acts of gross idiocy.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 00:55 GMT chivo243
Re: Football
passport holders with the 'wrong' stamp -
Yep, I met a guy while tramping through Europe, who had been to one in the middle east, and wanted to visit another and told me after this trip he was gonna 'lose' his passport, and get a new one so he could visit the other middle east country, this was 1990, I'm sure technology has caught up...
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Thursday 11th December 2025 13:07 GMT Maurice Mynah
Re: Football
Back in ancient times (I'm getting old) ISTR it was possible to get a second (UK) passport for just this type of situation. The common examples were Israel/Arab countries, and Turkey/Greece, doubtless there were others. It appears it is still allowed, but you have to apply specifically and the second passport only lasts 4 years. You can't just claim you lost one and get a replacement, because the "lost" one is automatically invalidated.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 14:02 GMT XSV1
Re: Football
South African passport holders can have three active ZA passports, each valid for 10 years. I currently have two valid passports.
But that’s because we need actual visas (not just e-Visas) to visit a load of countries, including USA, UK, Canada, Oz, NZ, EU, China, Japan and ironically President Trump, Venezuela. Actual visas require the applicant to apply in person at a consulate or an embassy.
And whilst I am at it if anyone from the UK Home Office ever reads this comment, please could you do something about the outrageous charge for a 10 year visitor for a ZA passport holders to visit the UK. It is £1000. That’s just absurd.
The USA charges us less than 1/10th of that for the same length of visa.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 09:26 GMT Dan 55
Re: Free speech
The first amendment says what congress shall not do and refers a right that "people" (not "citizens") have. If you look more globally the constitution applies to "we the people" not "citizens". Finally Guantanamo Bay was chosen as a military base out of reach of the US constitution.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 11:19 GMT Dan 55
Re: Free speech
Apparently lesser first amendment rights for visa holders/tourists but full rights for permanent residents (see Can U.S. customs officers ask questions about my religious beliefs and practices or political opinions?) airside and waiting enter is due to court interpretation.
The current administration is working on making a distinction inside the US for all non-citizens, of course.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 02:38 GMT Anonymous Coward
I’d love to go back to Canada and see friends again
Flying in is fraught with risk.
We won’t go via the US in any capacity.
The flight must be direct. Not so easy where we are.
I wouldn’t even want to cross US airspace if possible.
I think it would be safer and easier to visit North Korea.
BTW: Fuck Donald Trump.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 05:37 GMT Sherrie Ludwig
Born USAian...
I hate this, I never voted for this orange criminal nor his party, and I am stuck inside a crumbling country, which even in a "blue" state feels like Beirut in the calm just before everything went to hell. Spare a thought for those of us who can't get out due to age and familial responsibilities (I am legal guardian for an even more elderly relative with dementia).
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Thursday 11th December 2025 16:49 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: Seems to be working
Wow! almost at the end of third and final (at time of posting) page of comments before a lone MAGA turn up to support this insanity.
I note that the "usual suspects" are remarkably absent, demonstrating they not MAGA supporters but Putin supports and so have no skin in this thread.
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Friday 12th December 2025 09:21 GMT Furious Reg reader John
Re: Seems to be working
Was the bottom of page 1 when I made the comment, and the level of apoplectic rage the story had already generated made it too good an opportunity to miss.
I'm not American, so I'm not MAGA, or anti-MAGA, as it's none of my concern. However, I am amused at how batshit crazy Mr 45 drives certain people.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 11:00 GMT wolfetone
It's cute people think this is all going to stop once the Mango Mussolini is gone.
Look under him. There is far worse propping him up waiting to step in to his shoes.
This is going to go on for decades - and I'm alright with that. Fuck them. They need me and the rest of us far more than we need them.
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Thursday 11th December 2025 11:48 GMT EricB123
Maybe It's the Water?
I'm an American expat living in SE Asia. The last time I was there was 8 years ago.
I wanted to re-open my Uber account at that time, and "all that was required to reopen my account" was a description of my last 10 rides in descending order.
Let's see, several different countries, some were motorbike taxis in Asia and some were car taxis..
Lyft simply said "welcome". Guess which company I choose?
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Friday 12th December 2025 17:37 GMT WageSlave5678
Do we trust them not to make a mistake? Nope!
It seems to me that this is a catch-all to be used in case they need to, and I very much doubt they will be refusing entry to those of us who may re-post the occasional anti-Trump meme.
*However*, given the quality of the current leadership, the hiring of idiots and thugs into positions of responsibility *waaay* beyond their suitability, and the performative cruelty meted out by some US agents, then I personally wouldn't trust those a-holes not to confuse me with someone else.
We were planning to go to DIsneyLand as a family this year, but that's been kicked into the long, hopefully MAGA-free grass.
They will not see any of my dollars until that whole sordid mess is long gone.
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Friday 12th December 2025 21:14 GMT Anonymous Coward
From the linked federalregister.gov webpage:
"CBP intends to require applicants to submit ESTA applications solely via the ESTA Mobile application; consequently, travelers would no longer be permitted to submit ESTA applications using the existing ESTA website. CBP believes that moving to a mobile-only approach for ESTA submissions will both enhance security and improve efficiency."
So anyone without a smartphone (or any mobile phone) is shit out of luck...
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Sunday 14th December 2025 14:06 GMT tiggity
Visited the US this year*, on my ESTA application I obviously did the none option on social media - I would say it would be interesting to see what happens in future, but as I have a visit to Cuba on my upcoming bucket list of trips then irrelevant as that will ban me from any future US visit for quiet a few years.
* Wildlife watching trip, as vast majority of my holidays are (including Cuba one I am currently researching / planning)
