Battle of the Cotswolds? Protesters vow to ruin JD Vance’s family holiday on Trump-hater Ellen DeGeneres’s doorstep in the Oxfordshire countryside

Activists have vowed to ruin JD Vance‘s Cotswolds family holiday when he visits the place where Trump-hating Ellen DeGeneres now calls home this summer.

The US Vice-President is set to travel to the idyllic English countryside alongside his wife Usha, 39, and their three children, Ewan Blaine, Vivek and Mirabel next month.

But pro-Palestine activists, eco zealots and trade unionists have vowed to wreak havoc with planned protests during his stay.

The news of JD Vance’s holiday is unlikely to go down well with one of the area’s newest high-profile residents, TV presenter DeGeneres, who last week revealed she left the US because of Donald Trump’s re-election as US president. 

The former talk show host, 67, said that life is ‘just better’ in the UK and the US election outcome swayed her decision to move with wife Portia de Rossi.

She said: ‘We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, “He got in” – and we’re like, ‘We’re staying here”.’ 

The anti-Trump protests are set to mirror recent demonstrations against Mr Vance during a family holiday to Disneyland. 

Last week visitors were left outraged after Mr Vance shut down rides so he could enjoy them with his children – and he previously faced protest placards during a skiing holiday in the US state of Vermont in March this year.

US Vice-President JD Vance, pictured here with his wife Usha in Milwaukee in Wisconsin last August, is tipped for a family trip to the Cotswolds in the UK this summer

Ellen DeGeneres (left), who has set up home in the Cotswolds with her wife Portia de Rossi (right), confirmed last week she has settled in the UK due to Donald Trump’s re-election

This is the high street in the Cotswolds village of Burford, besieged by tourists in high season

The Cotswolds is hugely busy in the summer months, with the Vance family’s visit likely to further add to the region’s traffic woes (Pictured: Traffic in Bibury, Gloucestershire last August)

The Stop Trump Coalition alliance is said to include pro-Palestinian activists, climate campaigners and trade unions.

The pledges come as President Trump prepares to visit his two golf courses in Scotland from Friday, with Sir Keir Starmer lined up to meet him for talks in Aberdeen.

Mr Vance and his family are expected to arrive in Britain shortly after the US President’s five-day stay in Scotland. 

The Stop Trump Coalition have told of plans to greet Mr Trump with banners and flags along roads and a beachside message visible from the sky.

Further action is intended for his proposed state visit expected to take place in September.

And they have now signalled similar opposition to Mr Vance’s British sojourn, with a spokesman saying: ‘We are meeting Trump with protests in Aberdeen and Edinburgh this month, and then in London and Windsor in September.

‘JD Vance is every bit as unwelcome in the UK as Donald Trump. We remember how Vance cut short his ski trip in Vermont because he was so enraged by the sight of a few protesters.

‘We are sure that, even in the Cotswolds, he will find the resistance waiting.’

JD Vance (left) is set to follow Donald Trump (right) in travelling to the UK

US Vice President JD Vance, his wife Usha, daughter Mirabel and sons Ewan, left, and Vivek are heading for the Cotswolds this summer – pictured at the Taj Mahal in India in April

The Vice President strolled through Disneyland in Los Angeles, California, hand-in-hand with two of his children, Vivek and Mirabel, last Saturday – with a vast Secret Service security detail alongside them.  

Barricades went up outside popular rides including Pirates of the Caribbean as K9 units stood guard.

An entourage of 50 bodyguards and Disney personnel was said to be involved.

The prospect of such a heavy security presence in the winding rural roads of the Cotswolds is likely to spark logjams in an already congested area of the UK. 

Comedian and presenter DeGeneres now lives in the Cotswolds with her wife Portia de Rossi, 52, and told how they are ‘staying here’ for good now.

This weekend she spoke with broadcaster Richard Bacon at the Everyman theatre in Cheltenham where she opened up about the huge life changes – and pointedly referring to Mr Trump’s return to the White House.

She said: ‘We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, “He got in”. And we’re like, “We’re staying here”. 

Speaking of her love for the UK she added: ‘It’s absolutely beautiful. We’re just not used to seeing this kind of beauty.

Ellen DeGeneres spoke to broadcaster Richard Bacon at the Everyman theatre in Cheltenham where she opened up about the huge life changes since moving to the Cotswolds

Recently she snapped a photo while standing behind her wife Portia de Rossi as they looked out at the scenic view of the countryside and a double rainbow following a rainfall

‘The villages and the towns and the architecture – everything you see is charming and it’s just a simpler way of life.

‘It’s clean. Everything here is just better – the way animals are treated, people are polite. I just love it here.

‘We moved here in November, which was not the ideal time, but I saw snow for the first time in my life. We love it here. Portia flew her horses here, and I have chickens, and we had sheep for about two weeks.’ 

She often shares a look at her idyllic country lifestyle in the Cotswolds to her social media – and recently snapped a photo while standing behind Portia as they looked out at the scenic view of the countryside and a double rainbow following a rainfall.

Yet locals in quiet Cotswolds villages have raged in recent months over their narrow roads becoming rat runs for traffic between TV star Jeremy Clarkson’s farm shop and his pub –  after four series of his Clarkson’s Farm TV show has triggered an influx of tourists. 

The route between his Diddly Squat Farm Shop in Chadlington and his Farmer’s Dog pub which is 12 miles away near Burford in Oxfordshire have been particularly clogged. 

In the spring, local residents led by parish council leaders in villages nearest the pub  urged internet bosses to redirect drivers using their Google Maps app, towards main roads rather than narrow village alternatives.

Clarkson himself has also made a plea to motorists on the pub’s website to use only main roads and not the smaller single-track lanes through quaint quiet villages which can appear on Google Maps as most direct routes between his farm shop and pub.

The family visited Disneyland California last week, with rides closed to the public and an estimated security and Disney personnel entourage of around 50 people (The Vance family pictured at the Presidential Inauguration parade in January)

The former Top Gear host (left) helms Clarkson’s Farm alongside Kaleb Cooper (right)

Traffic has been building up between his Diddly Squat Farm Shop and Farmer’s Dog pub

Locals have called on Google to amend the different routes suggested to drivers

The Farmer’s Dog has attracted many fans of Clarkson, known as previous host of The Grand Tour and Top Gear.

A message on the pub’s website now reads: ‘If you’re travelling to The Farmer’s Dog, especially from Diddly Squat Farm Shop, please use the main roads.

Elsewhere, social media and particularly TikTok has paid a part in overtourism in the area – with one tiny village feeling the brunt more than others. 

Parking restrictions are being introduced on tourist coaches entering what has been dubbed England’s ‘most beautiful village’ which is invaded by a huge number of visitors every weekend.

The picturesque Cotswold village of Bibury can sometimes see as many as 20,000 visitors in a weekend, and up to 50 coaches parking there in a day.

Gloucestershire County Council has now announced a temporary traffic management trial. 

Existing coach bays in the village centre temporarily closed and instead bus stops will be installed for safer passenger drop-off and pick-up. 

The county council said it had worked with local coach operators, businesses, and the community to introduce the trial in the popular village.

JD Vance (right) and his wife Usha (left) recently visited Disneyland in California

Bibury, Gloucestershire, was once described by 19th Century writer William Morris as the ‘most beautiful village in England’ (file pic)

Residents say pedestrians are endangered by the volume of coaches that turn up, while the picture-perfect village turns chaotic

Elsewhere, the hashtags #CastleCombe and #CastleCombeEngland are among the most searched for when it comes to English tourist spots.

Thanks to its starring role in films such as Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, Dr Doolittle and The Wolfman, the small Wiltshire village of Castle Combe has become a tourism honeypot year-round. 

Yet the influx of crowds has prompted criticism among residents.

In 2023, furious locals claimed their privacy was being ‘invaded by drones’ as TikTokers tried to capture the perfect view of the village,

They also complained the community was being ruined by the rise of Airbnbs.

One resident said: ‘In the hotter months people pitch up like it is the beach which can be a bit annoying.

‘There are coaches that come and do guided tours of the Cotswolds so we will have those pitch up a few times a day.’ 

Then there is Bourton-on-the-Water, aka the ‘Venice of the Cotswolds’ with its ornate stone bridges, where a number of residents are trying to convince the parish council to explore the radical solution of banning vehicles and introducing a drop off-point for tourists a 30-minute walk outside the village. 

Protesters demonstrated against JD Vance in Waitsfield, Vermont, in March this year

The medieval architecture and bucolic surrounds have made the Wiltshire village highly Instagrammable 

TikToker @jedi_explores showed the reality for those descending on ‘Britain’s prettiest village’ – Castle Combe in The Cotswolds, saying it was almost impossible to get a photo of the village’s picturesque bridge because there’s always people on it 

Locals in Castle Combe, dubbed ‘one of the most beautiful locations in the UK’, have claimed tourists are ruining the picturesque village in the Cotswolds (Tourists pictured in 2023)

The village, 15 miles east of Cheltenham and with a population of 3,000, was given the ‘Venice’ label due to the number ornate stone bridges over the River Windrush. 

Tens of thousands of tourists flock to the village every year – which is great for traders – but residents were growing increasingly frustrated with the congestion.

Parish and district councillor Jon Wareing last year said Bourton was buckling under the weight of an ever increasing number of daytrippers.

‘People can spend an hour in their car, driving around. Some of the ‘difficult’ behaviour that follows is because they get frustrated.

‘One of my neighbours asked this person not to park on his property and got threatened with violence. He said he knew where they lived if they did anything to his car and threatened to throw a brick through their window.’