Can Trump revoke Rosie O'Donnell's US citizenship? – DW – 07/14/2025
"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," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday. "She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her."
Is revoking the citizenship of the actor, who was born in the US, something President Trump could legally do?
Following the post over the weekend, experts were quick to point out that the threat is unconstitutional, citing the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified in 1868, which established that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."
"The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen," University of Virginia School of Law professor Amanda Frost told news agency the Associated Press. "In short, we are a nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people."
US citizens can voluntarily renounce their citizenship, but the process is strictly regulated. It involves two separate interviews and requires taking an "oath of renunciation of US nationality," as outlined by the State Department.
The US president has similarly threatened to strip away citizenship from naturalized citizens, notably of his former ally, billionaire Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa. He also questioned the citizenship status of New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. The Democratic politician was born in Uganda, and moved to New York City at age 7, becoming a US citizen in 2018.
A Supreme Court ruling from 1967 determined that the government can't usually strip citizenship without the person's consent, but it can still happen in cases where fraud was involved in the citizenship process.
"Denaturalization is no longer so rare," Cassandra Burke Robertson, a professor at Case Western Reserve University's law school, told news site Axios.
The increase began under the Obama administration, she noted, as new digital tools allowed authorities to track down potential naturalization fraud cases.
"But the Trump administration, with its overall immigration crackdown, is taking denaturalization to new levels," Robertson added.
The Trump administration is also seeking to end birthright citizenship. On July 10, a US federal judge issued a new nationwide ruling blocking Trump's executive order, but the constitutionality of the order is still unresolved.
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The feud between Trump and O'Donnell spans nearly two decades, as the talk show host first publicly commented on Trump's lack of moral standards in 2006 amid a "Miss USA Pageant" controversy. That prompted a vicious reaction from the then-host of reality TV show "The Apprentice."
The grudge only deepened when Trump became president in 2016, as the comedian kept criticizing his policies.
At the beginning of 2025, O'Donnell left the US in reaction to Trump's reelection: "It's been heartbreaking to see what's happening politically and hard for me personally as well," she said on TikTok in March, as she revealed having moved to Ireland with her child. She is reported to be in the process of securing Irish citizenship through descent.
She has since pursued her criticism of Trump's policies from abroad.
Most recently, in a TikTok that some observers believe could have prompted Trump to react with his threat on Truth Social, she criticized his administration's response to the Texas floods, claiming the president gutted "all of the early warning systems and the weathering‑forecast abilities of the government."
Following Trump's headline-grabbing Truth Social post, O'Donnell fired back on Sunday with an Instagram post featuring a photo of Donald Trump with his arm over the shoulder of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In the post, O'Donnell dares Trump: "You want to revoke my citizenship? Go ahead and try, King Joffrey with a tangerine spray," she wrote, referring to a much loathed, sadistic, authoritarian character from "Game of Thrones."
She also listed some of the simple things that make her threatening to the president: "You call me a threat to humanity — but I'm everything you fear: 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."
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