Trump threatens to revoke Rosie O'Donnell's citizenship
Mr Trump said the 63-year-old entertainer, a long-time critic of his, was 'not in the best interests of our country' and called for her to remain 'in the wonderful country of Ireland', where she moved following his election win last year.
The US president does not have any legal power to unilaterally strip an individual of their citizenship, but Mr Trump said he was giving 'serious consideration to taking away her citizenship'.
O'Donnell, who had apparently provoked the president by criticising his response to the deadly flooding in Texas, fired back in a post on Instagram, labelling Mr Trump a 'criminal conman' and a 'dangerous old soulless man with dementia'.
Feud has lasted almost 20 years
'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,' Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on Saturday.
'She is a threat to humanity, and should remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her. God Bless America!'
The feud between the president and the comedian began in 2006, when O'Donnell criticised Mr Trump for presenting himself as a 'moral authority' in a controversy involving the Miss USA pageant.
At a Republican primary debate in 2015, when Mr Trump was questioned by a moderator about labelling women 'fat pigs' and 'slobs', he responded: 'Only Rosie O'Donnell.'
Responding on Saturday to Mr Trump's citizenship threat, O'Donnell, who was born in New York, fired back: '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 – this is why I moved to Ireland.'
She appeared to be referring to Mr Trump being found liable in 2023 for sexually assaulting E Jean Carroll, a magazine columnist. He had denied the allegation.
O'Donnell went on to label the president a 'dangerous old soulless man with dementia who lacks empathy compassion and basic humanity'.
Last week, she blamed Mr Trump for the loss of life in Texas after devastating flash flooding which killed at least 129 people.
'When the president guts all of the early warning systems and the weather forecasting abilities of the government, these are the results that we're going to start to see on a daily basis,' she said on TikTok.
Comedian seeking Irish citizenship
O'Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old child in January, shortly after the president's inauguration, saying she was in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship via her grandparents, who came from County Donegal and County Kildare.
'When it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America, that's when we will consider coming back,' she said in March.
Appearing on The Chris Cuomo Project podcast last month, she claimed Mr Trump's election win caused her to overeat.
'I was very, very depressed. I was overeating. I was overdrinking,' she said.
'It hurt my heart that America believed the lies about him. And then it broke my heart to be in a business that creates and sells those lies for profit.'
She claimed to have been heckled while shopping by Mr Trump's supporters following his election victory, and said she moved to Ireland for 'self-preservation'.
'When I got here, I noticed right away there was a different culture about celebrity,' she said. They're not lauded in Ireland. They're not thought of as better than anyone else.'
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