Donald Trump Threatens to Take Away Rosie O’Donnell’s Citizenship

President Donal Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday that he is giving “serious consideration” to taking away U.S. citizenship from comedian Rosie O’Donnell, extending his long-running personal attacks against the American-born celebrity.

In his Truth Social post, the president wrote that O’Donnell “is not in the best interests of our Great Country.”

Newsweek has reached out to O’Donnell’s publicist for comment via email on Saturday.

Why It Matters

O’Donnell and Trump have been embroiled in a feud spanning nearly two decades, beginning in December 2006 when the former co-host of The View called out Trump’s moral character during his tenure as owner of the Miss USA pageant.

The dispute has escalated over the years into personal attacks on appearance and character, with Trump mentioning O’Donnell by name during a 2015 presidential debate in insult and recently in conversation with the Irish prime minister while in the Oval Office.

At the core of Trump’s Saturday morning Truth Social post is his administration’s hardline stance on immigration and citizenship. The Trump administration has pledged to crack down on illegal immigration and issued an executive order to revoke birth right citizenship, a measure which is held up in courts.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the use of nationwide injunctions by federal judges, which clears the way for Trump’s restrictions on automatic U.S. citizenship to take effect in some states while remaining blocked in others, as injunctions issued by more than 20 states remain in place  but did not rule on the legality of the executive order.

O’Donnell is currently living in Ireland, having moved from the U.S. in January right ahead of Trump’s second inauguration. She said in a TikTok video announcing her move that she misses “many things about life there at home” and “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America, that’s when we will consider coming back.”

Legal experts, meanwhile, have noted that the president doesn’t have the power to revoke the citizenship of someone born in the U.S.

Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School and Fox News legal analyst, told Newsweek in an email on Saturday morning: “I know of no basis that could be used to strip Rosie O’Donnell of citizenship.”