STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Did Donald Trump say "I'll have to leave the country" if he loses to Joe Biden in the presidential election and did rock star Bruce Springsteen say he would move to Australia if Trump is re-elected? Yes, both men said they would leave the United States depending on the election results, but both were clearly joking.
The claim about Trump appeared as a post (archived here) where it was published on October 16, 2020. It opened: "trump told supporters at his rally that he might leave the country when he loses to Joe Biden."
This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Sat Oct 17 17:13:34 2020 UTC)
The president told supporters at a campaign rally in Georgia he was very confident he would win the election and then cracked a joke about emigrating if Biden beat him.
Trump spoke to a group in Macon, Georgia on October 16, 2020 where he was mocking Biden for wearing masks and practicing social distancing at his campaign events, The Hill reported.
"And the mask is always so large, it covers the whole ... I shouldn't joke, I shouldn't joke. Because you know what? Running against the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics puts pressure on me. Could you imagine if I lose? My whole life, what am I going to do? I'm going to say I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics. I'm not going to feel so good. Maybe I'll have to leave the country. I don't know."
The president was smiling as he delivered the remarks that caused the crowd to erupt in laughter.
Trump says he may leave the US if Biden wins. pic.twitter.com/XmbtYpNDoh
-- David Mack (@davidmackau) October 17, 2020
Threatening to leave the country if your chosen candidate does not win is not just a Republican sentiment. On the other side of the political spectrum, singer Bruce Springsteen quipped that if Trump is re-elected, he will be moving to Australia.
Springsteen added that he predicts Trump is "gonna lose" 👀
Posted by VT on Friday, October 16, 2020
"If Trump is re-elected - which he will not be, I'm predicting right now he's gonna lose - if by some happenstance he should be, I'll see you on the next plane," The Boss said when an Australian reporter asked if he would contemplate moving Down Under if Biden lost the election, Fox News reported.
Updates:
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2020-10-17T21:28:08Z 2020-10-17T21:28:08Z Updated to correct a capitalization and re-format two quotes.
