Desperate escape? Americans looking for ‘how to move to New Zealand’ skyrocket during presidential debate

It seems that Americans are desperate to leave the United States in an attempt to establish themselves in New Zealand after the first presidential debate.

This afternoon, Donald Trump and Joe Biden clashed in a debate that has been described as “chaotic” and a “shit show.”

The 90-minute circus featured Trump continuously interrupting Biden, while the pair insulted each other, leaving viewers frustrated.

Just 20 minutes into the debate, Americans got tired of Google Trends showing a substantial increase in the search for “how to move to New Zealand.”

Google Trends searches rank between 0 and 100, where 0 means not enough data and 100 indicates maximum popularity.

Less than an hour into the debate, the search for “how to move to New Zealand” came in at 75 out of 100.

By the end of the debate, it had reached 100.

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Other popular searches included “Can I move to New Zealand”, “move to New Zealand” and “move to New Zealand from the US”.

People from the state of Oregon, on the west coast of the US, is where most of the searches come from.

Oregon is a democratic state.

It is not the first time that Americans have wanted to flock to New Zealand.

More than 250,000 Americans have investigated whether they qualify to move to New Zealand since the coronavirus pandemic took hold this year.

Americans visited the Immigration NZ website every 30 seconds, while tens of thousands considered switching to New Zealand while Covid-free.

A Kiwi demographic expert said in July that the surge in interest from American citizens reflects a failure of the American public health and political system and disillusionment with the leadership of US President Donald Trump.

Distinguished Massey University professor Paul Spoonley said the pattern is likely to accelerate as the situation deteriorates abroad.

“Middle-class professional Americans are saying, ‘Well, where do we go for our own safety and the safety of our families?'”