You can say whatever you want about Rosie O’Donnell. She’s a celebrity and people have some strong opinions about her. Some good, some bad. But since she hasn’t been front and center in the public eye recently, I would wager that most people are more or less indifferent to her.
But not the President of the United States. He is still obsessed with O’Donnell. And he has taken his obsession to a whole new level.
First, some backstory. In 2006, O’Donnell, while a host of “The View,” called Trump a “snake-oil salesman on ‘Little House On The Prairie,’” called him out for being a philanderer and claimed that he went bankrupt, according to CNN.
Trump took issue with O’Donnell’s comments, especially the part about bankruptcy and responded with nothing but class by saying, “I’ll most likely sue her for making those false statements — and it’ll be fun. Rosie’s a loser. A real loser. I look forward to taking lots of money from my nice fat little Rosie.”
In 2011, Trump responded to O’Donnell’s news that she was engaged with the following post on what was then Twitter: “I feel sorry for Rosie’s new partner in love whose parents are devastated at the thought of their daughter being with Rosie — a true loser.” This post is still on X.
Little back-and-forths between the two on social media continued for years, usually with Trump attacking her and O’Donnell responding. Keep in mind, while all of this is happening, Trump and O’Donnell are celebrities.
But things started to get serious when, in 2015, Trump responded, “Only Rosie O’Donnell” when host Megyn Kelly asked him about calling women things like “fat pigs” and “disgusting animals” during the Republican Presidential Primary debate. The crowd ate it up.
When Hillary Clinton called him out for calling women “pigs, slobs and dogs” in their September 2016 debate, Trump once again brought up O’Donnell. “I said very tough things to her and I think everybody would agree she deserves it and nobody feels sorry for her.”
Then Trump became President. Then he lost reelection. When he became President again in 2024, O’Donnell moved to Ireland.
“I knew after reading Project 2025 that if Trump got in, it was time for me and my nonbinary child to leave the country,” she told CNN.
Trump didn’t seem to be much interested in O’Donnell any more. Until July 12, when he posted on social media, “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship. She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
A truly WTF moment. Regardless of Trump and O’Donnell’s history of celebrity squabbling, this was the sitting President of the United States publicly threatening to revoke the citizenship of a private person.
O’Donnell responded to Trump on Instagram writing, “18 years later and I still live rent-free in that collapsing brain of yours.” Oh, and she posted this along with a photo of Trump and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. A guy Trump was absolutely friends with.
“I’m everything you fear: a loud woman, a queer woman, a mother who tells the truth, an American who got out of the country b4 u set it ablaze,” O’Donnell continued. “You want to revoke my citizenship? Go ahead and try, King Joffrey with a tangerine spray tan. I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Hoo boy. O’Donnell did not come to play.
The media is calling what is happening right now a reignited feud and a grudge, but that is not accurate. This is not a celebrity spat between equals. As I said, Trump is the president. O’Donnell is a private citizen. He has absolutely no legal right to take away her citizenship and to threaten to do so is some fascist dictator level shit.
But Trump’s entire platform is retribution. He has never been able to take criticism and considers anyone who disagrees with him an enemy. He is literally the most powerful man in the world. And if he can openly target O’Donnell’s citizenship, he can do the same to any of us. Except, unlike O’Donnell, most of us don’t have the means to pick up and move to Ireland.
In an interview on RTÉ Radio 1’s Sunday With Miriam, O’Donnell said, “I know he can’t do that, but the Supreme Court has given him unbridled powers, and who knows what he can and can’t do.”
We all know Trump is not a man who cares about the law. He’s a petty tyrant who does not care about anyone or anything besides himself.
Even if what he threatens isn’t legal, even if he never even goes through with it, that’s not the point. The point is to keep people living in fear. The more we fear him, the more power he has. He has no incentive to tone things down. And things will get worse.
