The Cotswolds is preparing for the arrival of US Vice-President JD Vance and his family next month, a visit that has already drawn protest threats and exposed local tensions over overtourism. The Stop Trump Coalition, which mobilises British opposition to the US president, has vowed to make the Vances unwelcome, declaring him 'every bit as unwelcome in the UK as Donald Trump'. The family has previously faced protests during a ski trip in Vermont and at Disneyland in California.
In Stow-on-the-Wold, however, the resistance had yet to mobilise earlier this week. Locals are divided: while businesses welcome the tourist dollars, residents complain of gridlocked traffic and overcrowded streets. Ken Greenway, who rode his scooter into town to escape the crowds in nearby Burford, said: 'The locals, we’re struggling. It’s taken me 20 minutes to come two miles on the main road.' Lesley Webb, after eight years in Stow, is moving to West Sussex, partly because the village has become 'too touristy'.
The area has seen a surge in wealthy American visitors and residents, including comedian Ellen DeGeneres, who moved to the Cotswolds earlier this year explicitly to escape the Trump administration. Luxury estate agents report growing numbers of US buyers seeking a foothold in what some call the 'English Hamptons'. Meanwhile, US tourist Laurelyn Karagianis, visiting from Los Angeles with her family, expressed disappointment that American politics had followed them: 'It’s sad that our politicians are a laughing stock the world has to protest.'
Rumours now suggest the Vances may stay not in Gloucestershire but across the Oxfordshire border near Chipping Norton, possibly sparing Stow-on-the-Wold a direct confrontation between protesters and the vice-president’s security detail. For now, the town’s narrow lanes remain clogged with Range Rovers, not political demonstrations.
