Donald Trump has reignited his long-standing feud with actress and out gay comedian Rosie O’Donnell, once again publicly threatening to revoke her U.S. citizenship.
The recent comments were made on his social media platform and are the latest in a series of similar threats he has made against O’Donnell and others who have publicly criticized him.
The renewed threat to O’Donnell’s citizenship comes amid a continuing push for the administration to release all files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
For her part, O’Donnell has been vocal about this issue, posting a photo of Trump and Epstein together and stating on social media, “I’m the distraction — EPSTEIN SURVIVORS are the reckoning and your gold lamé throne is melting.”
This action directly tied Trump’s public attacks on her to his desire to divert attention from the Epstein case. Trump, in turn, has dismissed the Epstein issue as a “hoax” and mocked those who continue to bring it up.
Legal experts and constitutional scholars have repeatedly stated that a president does not have the authority to strip a U.S.-born citizen of their citizenship.
The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship, and a 1967 Supreme Court ruling solidified that the government cannot involuntarily take away a person’s citizenship. The only ways a U.S.-born citizen can lose their nationality are by voluntarily renouncing it or, in rare cases, if it was obtained through fraudulent means (a process known as denaturalization).
The animosity between Trump and O’Donnell dates back to 2006, when O’Donnell, then a host on The View, publicly criticized Trump.
Their feud has since become a recurring fixture in the news, with both figures trading insults on social media and in public appearances. O’Donnell, an outspoken critic of the president, has said she moved to Ireland with her family earlier this year, citing the political climate in the U.S. However, she has made it clear that she has no intention of renouncing her U.S. citizenship, despite seeking Irish citizenship based on her family’s heritage.
O’Donnell has also used her social media to hit back at Trump, comparing him to “King Joffrey with a tangerine spray tan” and asserting that she is “everything he fears: a loud woman, a queer woman, a mother who tells the truth, an American who got out of the country before you set it ablaze.”
