Celebrities say they'll leave US but curiously, they're still here...

Celebrities attract a lot of attention when they vow to leave the US over political differences. But their emotional pledges are typically nothing more than hot air.

British-born Simon Hankinson is a senior research fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation. From 1999–2023, he was a foreign service officer serving in India, Fiji, Ghana, Slovakia, Togo, Washington, D.C., Marseille, and Nairobi. Prior to entering the State Department, Hankinson worked as a lawyer in London, and then taught history, English, and drama at a private school in Miami.

Armstrong’s certainly entitled to renounce his citizenship. Several thousand Americans do so each year, albeit seldom for the reason(s) offered by the singer best known for "American Idiot." But Armstrong would be swimming against the tide. In a typical year, more than 800,000 foreign-born people are happily sworn in as United States citizens. Many years ago, I was one of them.