President Donald Trump has once again stirred controversy by threatening to revoke the U.S. citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O'Donnell, escalating a long-standing feud between the two. On Saturday, July 12, 2025, Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to announce that he was "giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship" because, in his words, O'Donnell "is not in the best interests of our Great Country." He further labeled her a "Threat to Humanity" and suggested she should "remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland," where she currently resides.
O'Donnell moved to Ireland in January 2025 following Trump's re-election to a second term as president. She has publicly stated that she is in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship through her family lineage and has expressed her intention to return to the U.S. only "when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America." The United States permits dual citizenship, so her pursuit of Irish nationality does not negate her American citizenship.
Trump's threat is not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern of targeting critics and political adversaries by questioning or threatening their citizenship status. Earlier this year, Trump suggested he might deport Elon Musk, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in South Africa, after the two clashed publicly over a significant GOP-backed tax breaks and spending cuts plan. Trump has also repeatedly made baseless allegations against Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, asserting without evidence that Mamdani is in the country illegally. Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018, has firmly rejected these accusations, calling them intimidation tactics designed to silence dissent.
Legal experts have been quick to debunk Trump's claims regarding his ability to revoke citizenship. Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1967 in Afroyim v. Rusk that the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the government from stripping citizenship from natural-born Americans. "The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born U.S. citizen," Frost said. "In short, we are a nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people." Julia Gelatt, associate director of the immigration program at the Migration Policy Institute, echoed this sentiment, explaining that while naturalized citizens can lose citizenship under certain circumstances such as proven fraud, native-born citizens like O'Donnell cannot have their citizenship revoked.
O'Donnell, born in Commack, New York, has been a vocal critic of Trump for nearly two decades. Their public feud began in 2006 when she criticized Trump on the television show "The View" for defending a Miss USA contestant embroiled in controversy. Trump responded with insults, calling her "fat" and "wacko," and even threatened to sue the show. The animosity resurfaced during Trump's 2015 presidential campaign when he referenced O'Donnell by name during a GOP debate after being questioned about derogatory comments he made about women.
In recent weeks, O'Donnell has openly condemned Trump's administration's policies, particularly targeting the handling of environmental and scientific agencies. She posted a TikTok video mourning the 119 deaths caused by the July 4, 2025, floods in Texas, attributing the disaster's severity to cuts in early warning systems and weather forecasting capabilities under Trump's leadership. "What a horror story in Texas," she said. "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." Trump, however, defended his administration's response during a visit to Texas, stating that his agencies "did an incredible job under the circumstances."
O'Donnell responded to Trump's latest attack on Instagram, calling him "a criminal con man sexual abusing liar out to harm our nation to serve himself" and a "dangerous, old soulless man with dementia who lacks empathy, compassion and basic humanity." In a subsequent post, she shared a photo of Trump with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died amid sex trafficking allegations, and taunted Trump by comparing him to King Joffrey, a tyrannical character from the television series "Game of Thrones." She wrote, "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."
Trump's provocative statements come amid a backdrop of multiple controversies engulfing his administration, including infighting among top law enforcement officials over the Jeffrey Epstein case, unresolved questions about halting munitions shipments to Ukraine, and scrutiny over FEMA's response to the Texas floods.
The Trump administration has also pursued legal avenues to challenge birthright citizenship, issuing an executive order on Inauguration Day seeking to end the practice for children born to non-U.S. citizen parents. However, this effort has faced significant legal challenges and remains stalled in court. Additionally, the administration has explored "denaturalization" as an immigration enforcement tool, targeting naturalized citizens accused of certain crimes, a strategy that could affect millions of Americans born abroad.
Despite the president's threats and rhetoric, constitutional protections remain clear. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, and the Supreme Court has firmly upheld that citizenship cannot be revoked involuntarily. Trump's repeated attempts to question or revoke citizenship rights have drawn criticism from legal experts and civil rights advocates alike, who warn that such actions undermine the foundations of American democracy.
As for O'Donnell, her move to Ireland and outspoken opposition to Trump reflect a broader cultural and political divide in the United States. Her defiance and sharp responses highlight the enduring nature of their feud, which has spanned nearly two decades and shows no signs of abating.
Whether Trump's threats will lead to any tangible actions remains highly doubtful given the legal constraints, but the escalating rhetoric underscores the increasingly polarized and contentious political climate in the country.
