Art Garfunkel Considers Leaving U.S. Over Trump Administration Policies

Music icon Art Garfunkel/Image: Getty Images

Art Garfunkel, the eight-time Grammy-winning singer, says he is considering leaving the United States because of his opposition to President Donald Trump’s administration. “I don’t like America’s position at all,” Garfunkel said in an interview with The Guardian. “I’m not aboard, and I’m thinking of leaving the country, frankly.” The 84-year-old musician said Trump’s policies and actions had left him alarmed, while also expressing concern about climate change, rising water levels and global hunger. Garfunkel questioned the administration’s approach to Venezuela, asking whether taking control of another country had become acceptable under “the new rules.” “When Donald Trump took over Venezuela, are those the new rules? Just take over a country and run it? It’s shocking,” he said. Garfunkel has supported Trump’s political opponents, including Bernie Sanders, and has long identified with liberal politics. Although he criticised the current administration, Garfunkel said he believed Trump’s presidency would eventually end. “You think: how on Earth are we gonna change the presidency?” he said. “But Trump won’t last forever. So we’ve got to hope.” Garfunkel has received eight Grammy Awards, including a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also known for his long musical partnership with Paul Simon. The two singers reconciled in 2025 after years of estrangement. Garfunkel is returning to live performance with his What a Wonderful World tour, which begins in Los Angeles on October 1 before travelling to the UK, France, Germany and Japan. He has said he is singing more now than he has in two decades. His recent work includes Father and Son, an album made with his son Art Jr, and “Authorship”, a track featuring an excerpt from his 2017 memoir over an AI-generated piano arrangement. The song was created for a compilation produced in collaboration with the technology company ElevenLabs. His career began in childhood. Garfunkel met Simon at school in Queens, New York, and the pair recorded together before finding early success as Tom & Jerry. Their 1957 song “Hey, Schoolgirl” became a hit, but the duo later separated as Garfunkel continued his education. The pair reunited professionally as Simon & Garfunkel, scoring major hits including “The Sound of Silence”, “Mrs Robinson” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. Garfunkel later pursued a solo career, acted in films including Catch-22 and Carnal Knowledge, and released the 1979 hit “Bright Eyes”. Simon & Garfunkel have reunited for performances over the years, including a 1981 concert in New York’s Central Park attended by hundreds of thousands of people. Their last tour took place in 2010.