CNN's Christiane Amanpour slammed for saying she's 'afraid' to travel to US under Trump's presidency

WASHINGTON, DC: CNN’s international queenpin Christiane Amanpour is catching some serious heat after saying she was “afraid” to travel to the US under Donald Trump’s presidency.

The longtime anchor dropped the bombshell during a recent sit-down on 'The Ex Files' podcast, where she was chatting with her ex-husband and co-host Jamie Rubin about her latest visit to America.

The 67-year-old broadcast icon, who holds British and Iranian citizenship, admitted she was so nervous about heading to the US last month (to give a speech at her alma mater Harvard Kennedy School) that she actually prepped like she was heading into a totalitarian state.

“I must say I was afraid. I’m a foreigner. I don’t have a green card. I’m not an American citizen. I’m fairly prominent, and I literally prepared to go to America as if I was going to North Korea,” Amanpour confessed. “I took a burner phone, Jaime. Imagine that. I didn’t take a single…not my mobile phone, not my iPad, nothing, and I had nothing on the burner phone except a few numbers.”

Christiane Amanpour slammed as she says she's afraid to visit Donald Trump's USA

Critics on social media weren’t about to let Christiane Amanpour off the hook for her North Korea comparison and saying that she was "afraid" about visiting the country.

"What an idiot for making that statement. Stay where you are, we do not want you visiting the USA," one posted on X (formerly Twitter).

"Jesus Christ! Why are they all so dramatic? Someone get her the smelling salts and fainting couch," another said.

"She can go to DPRK to remind herself of the difference. Idiotic," read a tweet.

"Here's an idea Christiane, don't come to America. You can lie from afar, rather than coming to the US to lie," another snarked.

"Please stop with the pity party emoting BS, follow our laws & use common sense. Legacy Media loves to make up stuff desperately hoping for clicks," someone else offered.

Amanpour did, however, try to soften her initial comments as she revealed that her trip actually went smoothly in the end.

“So, huge sigh of relief I breathed, but wow, can you imagine if I'm afraid, what do others think?” she said.

According to Amanpour, she’d been hearing firsthand horror stories from fellow Brits who told her they were either turned around at the border or detained for hours on end, adding that she even looped in CNN’s security team before making the trip, the Daily Mail reported.

Rubin pointed the finger directly at Trump’s immigration policies. “With Donald Trump’s basically weaponization of the immigration and naturalization service to scrutinize people, to imagine that every single non-American is a threat to the United States, is a war on what our country has been since its founding,” he alleged.

This came as Trump dropped two major immigration bombshells — one targeting Harvard, the other banning entry from nearly 20 countries.

Donald Trump's Harvard crackdown and global travel ban

Donald Trump announced on Wednesday, June 4, that foreign nationals are now banned from studying at Harvard University.

A new executive order, titled Enhancing National Security by Addressing Risks at Harvard University, suspended the school's student visa program and noted that it’s a “privilege granted by our government, not a guarantee.”

It's worth noting that Harvard had nearly 6,800 international students last year — that’s over 27% of its student body, according to the BBC.

Trump also signed off on another sweeping executive order banning visitors from 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Chad, Congo, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. That ban officially goes into effect on June 9.

Travelers from another group of countries — Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela — are also getting partially locked out, losing access to all immigrant visas and several non-immigrant travel options.

Trump warned that Egypt could be next to land on the travel blacklist, following a terror attack in Colorado where an Egyptian national targeted pro-Israel demonstrators with arson while allegedly overstaying his visa.

“We don't want 'em,” the presdient said in a video statement. “Very simply, we cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen.”

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