Antti Holma tells Iltalehti how the actions of US President Donald Trump affect his life.
Presenter Antti Holma42, cheerfully answers a video call at 8 a.m. US time, but only comes in front of the camera seconds later.
Holma politely apologizes for the matter “referring to dog stories”. She has a Sasou dog from her musician husband from France Emmanuel “Manu” Ceysson with.
The couple has already lived in Los Angeles for five years in a house completed in 2018. Holma uses the affectionate name “French potato” for her spouse.
The host tells Iltalehti that they have had “terrifyingly too much” business travel lately. Holma sometimes goes to Finland, for example Do you want to be a millionaire – program filming, and Ceysson, on the other hand, on business trips elsewhere. The couple recently flew to Korea with Ceysson’s orchestra’s Asian tour.
– Almost every month we have someone stay at home with the dog and the other goes on a trip. Or we take the dog to the care and leave together. This year has been pretty hectic with these trips, but when we’re at home, it’s very normal for us, he elaborates.
According to Holma, they can usually be separated from each other for about three weeks. He says that the longest they were apart was about a month and a half. According to Holma, the moment in question happened a couple of years ago, when Holma was working in Finland, and Ceysson was in another country.
Last year, Holma told Iltalehti that the couple considered moving away from the United States to Europe, for example, but now Holma says she is sure that they will stay in the United States.
– We always miss New York terribly. I can work anywhere, but the situation here is now good in terms of my husband’s work. So for now we are here, the host says.
– I still hate this city from the bottom of my heart, but I have learned that you have to find your own places here. Once you find them, it starts to get easier. And yes, it has started to get easier for me little by little, he adds.
The Trump Effect
of the President of the United States Donald Trump’s79, the administration’s actions have spoken all over the world. Trump has, for example, targeted undocumented immigrants and implemented a deportation policy.
Holma and Ceysson moved to the country through a legal and long process. According to the host, Trump’s actions have not affected their lives so far, but he knows that it has been different for some people.
– We are working with a person who said that his colleague was expelled. This person was a mother of three children and has been in this country for twenty years, the man says.
– This country is very special in the sense that there are people here with so many different statuses. It is easy to forget in this discussion. It’s hard to understand that from your own point of view and from a Finn’s point of view, he states.
Holma and her spouse live in the United States. Jussi Eskola
However, Holma refuses to be afraid of whether he will run into problems at the American border when he returns home from his travels.
– It’s a bit like being afraid in Finland of slipping and hitting your head in the winter. That is, you would be afraid of something that might happen.
According to Holma, they cannot really influence the affairs of the United States at the moment, because they do not have the right to vote in the country yet.
– Yes, at some point we will start applying for citizenship precisely because it also feels like a security solution. But you don’t even know if we’ll ever get the country’s citizenship, he states.
Terrible from Finland
Holma says that she has heard horrified messages from her relatives about things happening in the United States, such as riots. He reveals his style of reacting to those messages.
– I have begun to take revenge on people by telling them that “is your thumb epidemic so bad over there in Finland and should you come here for safety?” You get the impression from the newspapers that there is nothing else in Helsinki anymore but thumb-users shouting in the streets, says Holma.
– But I also don’t want to underestimate the fact that people are genuinely horrified by what is happening here. And we don’t know what’s going on and what kind of will this term’s government has, he adds.
Holma says that she recently heard a German-Mexican Moor in her painting club raving about the current situation in Finland, which she had read about in local newspapers.
– He said: “It’s good that you have come here through legal routes, when you have a terrible situation in Finland”. So he must have learned from the local news that Finland is at the point of collapse because of immigrants.
– I had to say that maybe the situation isn’t quite like that yet and it probably won’t be. We have a perfectly functioning society in Finland. But maybe he didn’t believe me.