Fact Check

Did Jane Fonda Say She Would Move to Canada if Trump Wins 2024 Election?

The actor has long been known for her activism and bold statements.

Published Jan. 2, 2024

 (Ted Eytan/Wikimedia Commons)
Image courtesy of Ted Eytan/Wikimedia Commons
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Claim:
In late 2023, actor Jane Fonda said about the 2024 presidential elections, “If Trump wins, I’m moving to Canada.”

In December 2023, a number of posts on X claimed that actor Jane Fonda said she would move to Canada if former U.S. President Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election.

We found no evidence that Fonda ever made the above statement.

None of the posts we saw provided a source for the quote, nor did they specify when she supposedly said those words. The alleged statement could have applied to Trump's potential election in 2016, or potential reelection in 2020 or 2024, but no hint was given as to its timing.

Many responses to the above post indicated the authors believed it was a legitimate quote of Fonda's, with some referring to her by the derogatory nickname "Hanoi Jane" — referring to the infamous moment in 1972 when she posed atop an anti-aircraft gun in North Vietnam while protesting the Vietnam War and speaking out against American policies in the region.

We looked across news coverage of statements Fonda made about Trump in the past. Prior to Trump's election, she did not speak about moving to Canada. In February 2016, she explained in an interview why she joined a group of celebrities in the Stop Hate Dump Trump campaign, an initiative that criticized the media and political institutions for "normalizing" Trump's "hate speech, misogyny, Islamophobia and racism."

She said regarding Trump's comments on Muslims: "I know him, and I don't dislike him particularly until he starts talking that way. What's really bad about it is that it makes our fight against terrorism, against ISIS all that harder."

Fonda added that Trump had given her money for her nonprofits.

Right after Trump's election in 2016, Fonda spoke about her efforts to discuss climate policy with him by getting his daughter Ivanka Trump to arrange a meeting. However, Ivanka never got back to her on the matter.  

In November 2019, Fonda criticized the then-president's climate policies on CNN, saying, "I don't hate him. I feel sad for him. And what he's doing to the world […] is just criminal. It's just criminal. It's terrible. But there's more of us, and we can make a difference."

However, we have found no publicly available evidence that Fonda spoke about moving to Canada if Trump was ever elected, whether it was in past elections or the upcoming one in 2024. As such we rate this claim as Unproven.

In late December 2023, Snopes debunked a similar rumor about actor Tom Hanks supposedly vowing to leave the U.S. if Trump gets elected.

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Sources

"A Brief History of Jane Fonda's Activism." TIME, 24 Sept. 2018, https://time.com/5400822/jane-fonda-hbo-documentary-activist/. Accessed 2 Jan. 2024.

Jane Fonda Full Interview. www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9EVNLojlcA. Accessed 2 Jan. 2024.

Johnson, Ted. "Anti-Donald Trump Campaign Gains Steam With Celebrities." Variety, 20 Jan. 2016, https://variety.com/2016/biz/news/anti-donald-trump-campaign-kerry-washington-jane-fonda-1201684129/. Accessed 2 Jan. 2024.

"Jane Fonda: Don't Fall for 'good-Looking Liberals' like Trudeau on Environment." The Guardian, 12 Jan. 2017. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/12/jane-fonda-justin-trudeau-environment-canada-pipeline. Accessed 2 Jan. 2024.

"Jane Fonda Explains Why Even Those Who Disagree Should 'love' Trump." ABC News, https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/jane-fonda-explains-disagree-love-trump/story?id=57991407. Accessed 2 Jan. 2024.

"Jane Fonda Talks Her Life, Her Activism, and Voting Biden–Harris in 2020." Vanity Fair, 30 Oct. 2020, https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/10/jane-fonda-on-her-activism-and-voting-biden-harris. Accessed 2 Jan. 2024.

Vogt, Adrienne. "Jane Fonda on Donald Trump: 'I Don't Hate Him. I Feel Sad for Him' | CNN Politics." CNN, 23 Nov. 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/23/politics/jane-fonda-trump-van-jones-cnntv/index.html. Accessed 2 Jan. 2024.

Nur Nasreen Ibrahim is a reporter with experience working in television, international news coverage, fact checking, and creative writing.