Amid a disaster in Texas, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and a trade war of his own making, President Donald Trump on Saturday took time out to issue a threat that he’ll strip the citizenship of U.S.-born comedian and talk show host Rosie O’Donnell, a longtime critic.
In a major escalation of his war of words with adversaries, the president wrote on Truth Social: “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.”
He continued: “She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
The president has no power to strip anyone of citizenship, but since returning to the White House, Trump has sought to end birthright citizenship, guaranteed to Americans under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
The 14th Amendment states: “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.”
Overturning the automatic right to citizenship for anyone born in the United States is currently the subject of a legal battle, with a federal judge just this week blocking an executive order that seeks to unilaterally redefine who qualifies as a citizen.
This paves the way for another major Supreme Court case involving the president’s birthright citizenship challenge.
Several courts have already struck down the president’s attempt to block citizenship from newborn Americans who are born to certain immigrant parents.
In another alarming move, a recently unveiled memo from the Department of Justice outlines the Trump administration’s plans to “maximally pursue” denaturalization of American citizens, marking a radical expansion of the president’s anti-immigration agenda.
Approximately 25 million people in the U.S. are naturalized citizens, or immigrants who completed the lengthy legal process to become citizens.
According to the June 11 memo, the Justice Department’s civil division will “prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence.”
That evidence would need to be proof that an individual “illegally procured” citizenship through fraud or other means. It is rare, but it does happen.
In the first Trump administration, there were 94 denaturalization cases. Joe Biden’s administration pursued 64 such cases. These play out in civil courts where the burden of proof is “clear and convincing evidence,” and a judge, not a jury, makes that decision.
O’Donnell was born in Commack, New York, in 1962. Her mother was of Irish American descent, and her father was an immigrant from County Donegal, Ireland.
Days before Trump’s return to the White House, the 63-year-old comedian left the U.S. and moved to Ireland, which she says has helped improve her health and sleep.
Nevertheless, she remains a fierce critic of Trump, and on Sunday, she blamed him for the impact of the deadly flash floods in Central Texas in a lengthy TikTok video.
“And, you know, when the president guts all of the early warning systems and the weather forecasting abilities of the government, these are the results…” O’Donnell said in part.
As many as 129 people are known to have died in the disaster, with contributing factors being an insufficient early warning system and the timing of the storm, which hit as it did in the middle of the night.
In March, O’Donnell questioned how Trump comfortably won every swing state in the 2024 election, claiming that one of his “best friends owns and runs the internet,” likely referring to former “first buddy” Elon Musk.
Despite her long-running criticism of the president, there is no evidence that O’Donnell is a “threat to humanity.”
