President Donald Trump renewed a long-running public feud with comedian Rosie O’Donnell on Wednesday by saying he was “giving serious thought to taking away Rosie O’Donnell’s Citizenship,” a post on his social network Truth Social showed. The message, which echoed language he has used previously, included a doctored photo of O’Donnell and drew swift responses from the comedian and from the White House’s official social media account.
The post read, in part, “As previously mentioned, we are giving serious thought to taking away Rosie O’Donnell’s Citizenship. She is not a Great American and is, in my opinion, incapable of being so!” On Thursday the White House’s official Instagram account reposted Trump’s item and added a watermark to the image.
O’Donnell, who now lives in Ireland, posted two responses to the reposts on her own Instagram account. In the first she shared the altered photo that Trump posted and referenced the HBO series Succession, writing, "Banishing me again? logan roy would be proud. Im the distraction - EPSTEIN SURVIVORS are the reckoning and your gold lamé throne is melting. only rosie o’donnell ❤️." In a second Instagram post, she shared a selfie and again invoked survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex trafficker.
The exchange continues a decades-long public feud between Trump and O’Donnell that has included repeated insults and personal attacks on both sides. The resurfacing of the citizenship threat drew quick attention because of the White House account’s decision to republish a personal post from the president’s social feed on an official government page.
The administration’s repost came amid heightened scrutiny of the White House’s use of its social channels to amplify the president’s statements. Legal and constitutional scholars have long noted that revoking U.S. citizenship is not a straightforward presidential action and typically involves legal processes; historically, questions about the scope of executive authority to strip citizenship have been raised when similar threats have been made.
Trump has used Truth Social as his primary public platform since leaving mainstream social networks, frequently posting criticisms, personal attacks and policy commentary. O’Donnell, an actress and former television host, has been an intermittent vocal critic of Trump since his entry into public life, and the two have clashed repeatedly in public forums for years.
The latest exchange underscores how political disputes between the president and private citizens can play out on social media and then be amplified through official White House channels. Neither the White House nor the president’s campaign provided additional comment beyond the reposted material. O’Donnell’s posts remained public on her Instagram account following the exchange.