August 15, 2025, 3:10 pm | Read time: 6 minutes

Never in my life have I been so well-prepared before embarking on a trip as I was for this last U.S. trip under Trump. Horror stories of weeks-long detentions for alleged employment in the U.S., denied entries, and weeks-long laptop searches triggered a fear in me that I had never felt before a trip. And I’ve been to far more dangerous places than the U.S.

So, I deleted all work programs from my laptop and asked TRAVELBOOK to issue a letter assuring that I really wouldn’t be working during my U.S. trip under Trump. I was particularly concerned because of my freelance work as a travel journalist. I printed out all flight and even ESTA documents so I could keep my phone turned off during the entry process. I even combed through old articles for possible Trump criticism and deleted critical photos and messages from my friends from messengers before the U.S. trip. In short, I was overly well-prepared. And extremely nervous. As were some of my friends and family members, who even advised me not to fly at all.

This was the entry into the U.S.

Together with my husband and daughter, I finally landed in mid-July 2025 after a 16-hour flight from Melbourne, Australia, in Dallas, Texas. Hungry, overtired, and nervous, I stood in line and observed the people to my left, right, and especially in front of me at the entry counters. Solo women with multiple children, men in Muslim attire, families, individual backpackers, business travelers. The mood: surprisingly relaxed.

And then it was our turn: “Hi, how are you doing? What brings you to the States today?” the border officer greeted us. I mumbled something about a friend’s wedding we were invited to in Boston and a subsequent vacation while trying to prevent my daughter from smearing a strawberry on my leg. Two photos, a few fingerprints, and the brief info that we would fly directly to Boston–and we were through.

Never in my life has an entry into the U.S. been so quick, so uncomplicated, friendly, and above all, lacking in questions. Was it because we entered through Dallas instead of New York or Los Angeles, which are more commonly flown to from Europe? Or did we just get lucky? I don’t know. I can only say that neither my profession as a freelance travel journalist nor a previous stay in Afghanistan in 2012 came up in any form. There was simply no problem. The same was true for Boston, where thanks to a domestic flight, we didn’t even have to show an ID.

That there can indeed be quite a few questions and sometimes even a few more problems when entering the U.S. is shown in this article by BOOK-family head Nuno Alves:

Not much happening, except for one incident

In Boston, we stayed near Harvard University. Recently the scene of protests against the questionable censorship measures and funding cuts by the Trump administration. At the very least, I expected turmoil here, but I hadn’t considered that it would be summer break during our stay. Even at Harvard and the surrounding area: everything was calm, nice, and uneventful.

And so it continued. We spent four weeks in the U.S., traveling from Boston to New Milford (I report on the stay in the “real” Stars Hollow here), back to Boston, on to Salem, up the coast to Maine, and from there to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. There was never any politically motivated turmoil. I only saw one demonstration at all. That was in Portland, Maine, and it was a pro-Palestinian demonstration.

When I think about it, there was an event that should be mentioned here, albeit with reservations. In Connecticut, I observed a scene that occupied my mind for a while. Several official-looking, mostly white cars were parked carelessly in front of a house on the roadside, and somehow I felt that something was happening there. A few seconds later, a handful of dark-uniformed men indeed came out of the house, among them others with their hands on their backs.

I was in the car myself and drove on. Accordingly, I don’t know exactly what I saw. Was it a raid? Was it really the beginning of a deportation of people Donald Trump doesn’t want in his country? I can’t say for sure. I found no news about it from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or the local police. So, at this point, just this brief impression without more detailed backgrounds.

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Signs everywhere

This was the only incident of this kind during my U.S. trip under Trump. Otherwise, everything seemed visibly the same as always at first glance. Enchanting New England in the summer. With one clear exception: signs.

I saw many of these during the trip, some actually shocking. While many Trump supporters simply asked their hero in giant signs in the front yard to “Make America great again,” there were one or two that outright called for the killing of his political opponents. And one that I somehow found even worse in a certain sense. This sign was stuck on a car that stood for several days in a hotel parking lot in Maine: Under the note that the car owner counted themselves as part of “Team Trump,” the addition read: “Pureblood.”

The opposing side, by the way, seems far less sign-heavy and, if at all, much less loud and brutal in standing up for their beliefs. As this quiet plea, which I also discovered on a car, shows: “Make America kind again.”

What is the mood?

I felt how tense the mood was in the country due to the actions of the Trump administration primarily in conversations during my last U.S. trip. While I’m used to people in most Western countries being either disinterested or somewhat outspoken against or for their current government, the Americans I asked about it all became quite silent and usually quickly changed the subject. Only with a democratically-minded acquaintance was I able to have a longer conversation, in which she told me about her concerns. As well as her consideration of turning her back on her beloved Boston should democracy in the U.S. suffer even more.