Director James Cameron says in Trump's America 'everybody's at each other's throats'

Acclaimed Hollywood director James Cameron recently elaborated on why he left the United States, and lamented that the U.S. has become paralyzed by political division under President Donald Trump.

The Hill reported Friday that Cameron – who directed the "Avatar" series along with blockbuster films like "Titanic" and the first two installments of the "Terminator" series – gave frank criticism of the political climate in the United States during an interview with journalist Graham Bensinger.

The Canadian-born filmmaker said that while he left the U.S. for his 12,000-acre New Zealand estate during the Covid-19 pandemic, he's in no hurry to return. He referred to his newly adopted home country as more "sane" than the United States due to its respect of science and its high vaccination rate.

"This is why I love New Zealand," Cameron said. "People there are, for the most part, sane, as opposed to the United States, where you have a 62 percent vaccination rate, and that’s going down, going the wrong direction."

The Oscar-winning director then posed a rhetorical question to Bensinger, asking: "Where would you rather live?"

"A place that actually believes in science and is sane and where people can work together cohesively toward a common goal, or a place where everybody’s at each other’s throats, extremely polarized, turning its back on science and basically would be in utter disarray if another pandemic appears?" He said.

Bensinger remarked that the United States was "a fantastic place to live," but referred to New Zealand as "stunningly beautiful." Cameron countered: "I'm not there for the scenery, I'm there for the sanity."

Cameron has been a consistent Trump critic. According to The Hill, Cameron said the 2024 election was "like watching a car crash over and over." He said during a 2025 podcast that he viewed the U.S. as turning away "from anything decent."

"America doesn’t stand for anything if it doesn’t stand for what it has historically stood for," he said not long after Trump's second inauguration. "It becomes a hollow idea, and I think they’re hollowing it out as fast as they can for their own benefit."

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