O’Donnell says the Republican US president hates her because she sees ‘him for who he is – a criminal con man’.
United States President Donald Trump has said he might revoke talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell’s US citizenship after she criticised his administration’s handling of weather forecasting agencies in the wake of the deadly Texas floods.
Trump’s threats are the latest salvo in a years-long feud the two have waged over 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,” the US president wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump has long called for the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, but in recent weeks, he has suggested that he would remove US citizens that he disagrees with from the country.
“She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!” Trump wrote.
Under the law, a president cannot revoke the citizenship of an American born in the US. O’Donnell was born in New York state.
Trump’s latest jab at O’Donnell seemed to be in response to a TikTok video she posted this month, mourning the 119 deaths in the July 4 floods in Texas and blaming Trump’s widespread cuts to environmental and science agencies involved in forecasting major natural disasters.
“What a horror story in Texas,” O’Donnell said in the video. “And you know, when the president guts all the early warning systems and the weathering forecast abilities of the government, these are the results that we’re gonna start to see on a daily basis.”
The Trump administration, as well as local and state officials, have faced mounting questions about whether more could have been done to protect and warn residents in advance of the Texas flooding, which killed at least 120 people earlier this month.
Trump, on Friday, visited Texas and defended the government’s response to the disaster, saying his agencies “did an incredible job under the circumstances.”
O’Donnell responded to Trump’s threat in two posts on her Instagram account, saying: “the president of the usa has always hated the fact that i see him for who he is – a criminal con man sexual abusing liar out to harm our nation to serve himself.”
She added that he opposes her because she “stands in direct opposition with all he represents”.
O’Donnell has been a longtime target of Trump’s insults and jabs.
In 2014, when she opened up about her weight loss journey, Trump said on X that “she felt ‘shame’ at being fat-not politically correct! She killed Star Jones for weight loss surgery, just had it!”
During Trump’s first presidency, O’Donnell told W magazine that she feared whether she would be able to “live through” his presidency.
Following Trump’s inauguration for his second presidential term in January this year, she moved to Ireland earlier this year with her 12-year-old son.
In a March TikTok video, she said that she would return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
Earlier this month, Trump said he may look at options to deport his former aide-turned-critic, Elon Musk, a naturalised US citizen.
And last month, the White House said allegations that Democratic nominee for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has supported “terrorism” in the past “should be investigated”, with the intent of revoking his citizenship.
